Providing water and sanitation by Fonterra to schools and other areas in Gampola
Doluwa (Gampola): When a group of journalists reached the Lagumdeniya Kanishta Vidyalaya it was time for the tea interval and the sight of children enjoying the gushing water from newly installed taps was a very pleasant scene one morning last week. The group was taken to this village by Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka (Fonterra).
For the past few years Fonterra has been collecting fresh milk from the dairy farmers in the country and has since then opened several milk chilling centres to process the milk collected from the farmers.
Doluwa, in this area the group visited, is one of these Milk Collecting Centres. Fonterra launched the Fonterra Grass Roots Fund (GRF) in 2014 to support the local dairy communities in providing water and sanitation, community infrastructure and community engagement. Through this scheme Doluwa where the milk producers are located are provided with the benefits under GRF.
A Fonterra spokesperson said the Doluwa GRF was launched in 2014 and at its core is a single-minded ambition to enrich the lives of individuals within Fonterra’s dairy communities by addressing the most demand driven, community needs
He told the Business Times, “We have also piloted a Rapid Milk Chilling technology in Doluwa, where milk supplied by farmers is chilled to 40C from about 300C within 2-4 seconds. It’s a patented technology and ideally suited for small scale milk collection operations”.
He said the GRF has made a positive social impact by enriching the lives of farmer families. As far as the Lagumdeniya school is concerned, parents were reluctant to send their children there as the toilets were located on a hill and due to the unavailability of water. Two years ago there were only eight students but after the building of several modern toilets and a continuous water supply under GRF, the number of children rose to 48, almost the full capacity.
Some parents of these students said that the narrow road leading to the school from the main Doluwa Road, about two km away, was earlier a rough pathway which the students found difficulty to walk through. That pathway is also now concreted under GRF.
The Fonterra official said that during the last two years, the GRF has invested Rs. 33 million, completing 45 community service initiatives with a positive impact to over 30,000 individuals, across eight rural dairy farming communities in Hanwella, Gampaha, Kiriwathuduwa, Doluwa, Wilathava, Boraluweva, Kuliyapitiya and Pannala.
The GRF works with implementing partners such as the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement and the Kansarmen Foundation (a Dutch water and sanitation foundation) in identifying, selecting and executing such community based interventions, he exerted.
He said when FBSL selects GRF projects, the centre of this process is the Fonterra milk chilling centre in each dairy community. The GRF project team focuses on elements that directly impact the dairy farmers where Fonterra collects milk on a daily basis. They also conduct impact assessments.
Speaking of the Doluwa Dairy Community, the spokesperson said that for the 150 Fonterra farmers in Doluwa, since the opening milk chilling centre in October 2015, new milk routes are being added to increase the farmer base.
So far the project has provided water and sanitation facility, and refurbished the main hall at Lagumdeniya school, built a water and sanitation facility in Wevathana Vidyalaya; refurbished the interior and exterior of the main hospital building at Panviltanna Divisional Hospital, and provided a sanitation and water project and water and sanitation facility for the Panviltanna Sri Ranasingharamaya Community Centre.
Future plans in Doluwa, he said is to continue to help the beneficiaries, increase the number of beneficiaries over the next 10 years; focus on mapping the milk routes and community needs.
One other major factor is that the GRF constantly monitors the maintenance of the facilities as they do not want these communities to be affected if they are not maintained properly.
The official said that while they are increasing the collection of milk in the country, plans are also afoot to provide essential services like water and sanitation of the dairy farmers. He said the company now collects over 40,000 litres of milk per day.
He added that the company has invested Rs. 1.5 billion over the past three years to help uplift dairy communities, drive demand creation for local dairy products and strengthen dairy processing infrastructure.