5 October 2024 12:02 am Views - 37
Hayleys recently reaffirmed its commitment to its flagship social sustainability initiative, ‘Puritas Sath Diyawara.’ Celebrating its tenth consecutive year, this initiative recognizes the critical importance of access to clean drinking water and aims toenhance the socio-economic well-being of rural communities.
Puritas Pvt. Ltd., the environmental engineering arm of Haycarb Group,which is a key sector of Hayleys group, used its expertise and experience as a purification systems provider and launched Puritas Sath Diyawara in Padaviya in 2014, to supply clean drinking water to arural community impacted by the Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in the village D10 Maithripura, by installing a Reverse Osmosis (RO) water treatment facility and distribution system.
This initiative has since expanded significantly sponsored byseveralCompanies within the Hayleys Group. Today, as we mark the 10th anniversary of this initiative, 19 Purification and Distribution systems, built at a cost of Rs. 95.5 million, continue to provide over 190,000 litres of drinking water daily benefiting 44,000 individuals, uplifting health and providing hope for a safer and secure tomorrow.
Today, this essential life-giving initiative has extended beyond to sustainable community development projects under the extension of ‘Puritas Sath Diyawara - Going Beyond.’ This encompasses sustainable community development projectsin education and livelihood development, includingthe establishment of fully equipped libraries and internet access centres.
At the beginning of each school year schoolbooks and essentials are sponsored byHayleys Group Companies, to the schools in villages adopted by them under the Sath Diyawara initiative. In 2024, the 7th year of engagement with schools, over 3,700 school children benefited from these donations.
The impact of ‘Puritas SathDiyawara’ has garnered local and international accolades such as Asia’s leading SME CSR Project at the Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Awards in 2015and the World’s Best CSR Project in the “Water” category at the Energy Globe Awards in 2017/18.
“ESG has always been a part of our ethos at Hayleys, and our purpose, to inspire an inclusive world and a thriving planet, resonates through initiatives such as ‘Puritas Sath Diyawara’. From providing purified clean drinking water through reverse osmosis plants to communities affected by CKD in North, North Central and Uva Provinces,to empowering schoolchildren through providing infrastructure, facilities and school books, we’ve witnessed the transformative power of collective action. The Hayleys family continues to rally together to safeguard lives and livelihoods, fostering sustainable progress,” said Hayleys PLC Chairman and Chief Executive Mohan Pandithage.
“As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, Haycarb is proud to showcase ‘Puritas Sath Diyawara’ as a flagship project where we harnessed Puritas’ expertise in water purification systems, to provide access to clean drinking water to rural communities that were facing immense hardships and threats by the lack thereof.
Our long-term commitment to the projects, through our contribution and support to the maintenance of the Water Purifications Plants and continued support to the schools have positively impacted health, education and economic inequalities in these communities. We are confident that the results will resonate across generations, with its ripple effect spreading out amongst the communities and regions,” Haycarb PLC Managing Director Rajitha Kariyawasan said.