Dr. Vinod Shah, a Chemical Engineer by profession and founder of Chembond group Companies, has assisted financially in personal capacity to several project related to education, medicine and health. Consequent to the formation of Visan Trust, of which he is the senior trustee, he has routed personal donations through the trust for benevolent projects. Having given due thoughts to the cost/benefit effect of donations, he is of the firm belief that money spent on 'Safe Drinking Water' project will eventually be more rewarding to the society at large. The project will, in the final analysis, prove more economical by raising the overall health standards and improvements in the life styles of relatively weaker sections of society. Accordingly he has made financial contributions in his personal capacity as well as from Chembond Chemicals Limited and Finor Piplaj Chemicals Limited.

The exponential rise in the growth of bottled water industry shows the public awareness and the importance of drinking water quality. The municipal waters in cities and large towns are processed through filtration and chlorination plants that ensure safe drinking water quality. Despite this, it is generally perceived that the drinking tap water directly is not safe and requires further treatment at user end. Those fortunate enough with sufficient financial means can afford to drink either bottled water or have installed water purification facilities such as 'Aquaguard' or 'RO' units. Such is not the case with water available in villages, tribal regions or in shanties and ghettos within large metro cities. In such areas water is consumed unmindful of the impurities it contains.

"World Bank estimates 21% of communicable diseases in India are water related, out of these diarrhoea alone killed over 700,000 lives in 1999. The highest mortality is in children under the age of 5".

This is a reason strong enough to launch a project to create awareness and improvement of water quality.

The project was conceived a few weeks ago and is in the process of working out a proper structure. The immediate plan is to map out the water quality in areas within about 100 km range of Mumbai. We will provide sterilized bottles to collect water samples complete analysis at our well equipped laboratory Mahape, Navi Mumbai and report back the same to the respective areas with our comments, suggestions and help proposals. We intend to spend next 6-12 months to cover most of the villages and tribal areas in the interiors of Maharashtra and generate large data bank that will serve as basis for further work. To propagate our message we will approach Rotary Clubs and various other organizations.

Simultaneously we will distribute informative and educational pamphlets and conduct training sessions for safe drinking water, hygienic storage of water, sanitation in living premises etc.

Our ultimate aim is to reduce the incidences of water borne diseases. This will involve setting up of economical water treatment units utilizing the latest available technologies of filtration, anti-microbial treatments, and membrane separation systems for the removal of poisonous contaminants such as fluorides, nitrates, lead, and arsenic. We will draw out programs to achieve quick results with available resources. For large projects beyond our means, we will work as a catalyst to mobilize philanthropic bodies at national and international levels.

It is felt that with dedication and devotion on our part we will emerge, within the next 3 years, as one of the leading and trustworthy Trust with expertise to mitigate ant problem related to safe drinking water.