iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
Clean water is the number one essential element for any living thing, more importantly for humans to be nurtured with good health and wellbeing. In fact, each person on Earth requires between 20 and 50 liters of safe water a day for drinking, cooking, and basic hygiene.
Unfortunately, many people in the world are starved of this basic need and are dying because of the lack of it.
India is a country that was once replete with rich life-giving rivers, but now, it ranks 120th among 122 countries in the Water Quality Index.
Approximately 70 percent of its water supply is contaminated, resulting in nearly 2 lakh untimely deaths each year, besides irreversible debilitation and crippling economic burdens. Millions of rural Indians cannot even access water for handwashing.
Dr. Jagan Ailinani, past President of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) and philanthropist, has been tirelessly working towards reversing this effect to help millions of Indians get access to clean drinking water.
Recently, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under the leadership of Dr Ailinani has been signed between Community Pure Water Foundation, Inc. (CPW) and the AAPI in order to memorialize the intent of this alliance between the two organizations.
Dr. Sudhakar Jonnalagadda, President of AAPI, said, “AAPI has formed a strategic partnership with CPW to provide relief through implementation of AAPI’s Clean Drinking Water initiative in rural India; to engage CPW as a turnkey provider and operator of Clean Drinking Water Projects proposed to be sponsored by AAPI’s members and network.”
“The overall objective is to improve health of rural Indian communities that are impacted by waterborne diseases, by partnering to provide water purification plants in affected regions and thus to stem the spread of waterborne diseases,” said Dr. Ailinani.
Dr. Anupama Yeluru Gotimukula, President-Elect, AAPI said, “AAPI will work to leverage membership, networks and resources in the United States and India to provide and facilitate funding, skills transfer, and knowledge building to support agreed-upon activities, and consider additional projects to extend availability and affordability of Clean Drinking Water to rural communities in various states in India.”
According to Dr. Ravi Kolli, Vice President of AAPI, AAPI intends to work in four key areas: identifying sponsors; collaborating with various prestigious professional groups including medical societies, academic institutions, hospital systems and NGOs (both in the US and India); leveraging the annual Global Healthcare Summit to educate and promote the key area related to this MOU; and engaging the AAPI supported 14 free (charitable) clinics in India to disseminate awareness on the health benefit of using safe clean water.
Dr. Satheesh Kathula, Treasurer of AAPI, said, AAPI member tax-deductible sponsorship of USD 7,000 per village of 500 households covers capital costs of water treatment plants totaling USD $5,000 as well as operating & annual maintenance cost for two years amounting to USD $2,000. One-time setup expenses cover the installation and commissioning of a 500 LPH (liters per hour) five-stage water purification center. These include community awareness, operator training and skilling of technical staff. Water purchases fully fund operation and maintenance costs after about two years. Each center can provide pure water year after year with no further donor funding after a year two.
Dr. Amit Chakrabarty, Secretary of AAPI, pointed out that India lacks an adequate number of qualified Oncology specialists that would like to partner with AAPI to provide medical, surgical and radiation oncologists to deliver quality cancer care.
Dr. Ailinani had adopted his native village several years ago and fully funded and established safe drinking water, trash disposal and built a funeral shelter with showers and toilets at the cremation site, constructed of a primary health center, maintaining proper hygiene and landscaping and provided education to kids and offered training camps to farmers.
In 2006, Dr. Ailinani established the AAPI Preventive Health Clinic in Jagtial with a mission to deliver quality health services to the rural population of Northern Telegana. This includes thousands of villages including his own of Mothe within the Jagtial district. He did this through a partnership with the local Rotary Club, Prathima Medical College (PIMS-Kariminagar), and Yashoda Hospitals (Hyderabad).
Dr. Ailinani is one of the founding board members of the Prathima Institute of Medical Services-PIMS with a mission to provide specialty services/Tertiary care to the rural population of northern Telangana.
He also got affiliation with Southern Illinois School of Medicine (SIU), USA with student and faculty exchange. He raised $250,000 from US alumni for the establishment of a state-of-the-art Digital library at his alma mater, Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad.
Dr. Sajani Shah, Chair, AAPI BOT said, “We are grateful to Dr. Jagan Ailinani and several other senior leaders of AAPI who have initiated several noble efforts.”
“We are urging AAPI members and others to come forward and work together in ensuring that all people in India enjoy basic health care needs, education, sanitation and help to access and drink clean and safe water,” Dr. Sudhakar Jonnalagadda added.
For more information, please visit: www.aapiusa.org