Thenkansenai, Sampukkalappu is an underprivileged village located within the Koralaiparru (Vakarai) Divisional Secretariat division of Batticaloa district. In this village, there is small settlement near the 4^th milepost that houses 78 individuals from 25 families. These people live there for the past 22 years, under challenging circumstances but the lack of clean water is the worst of all. They earn a living through seasonal crops agriculture, fishing from the river and collecting honey from the jungle.

The villagers face several issues caused by various factors. Human-elephant conflict is a serious threat to the villagers’ cultivation as well as their poorly built houses/huts. Lack of proper roads makes them not being able to access to the nearby markets to sell their crops and fishes. Most of the villages take them all to the main road using their bicycles or by walking to a long distance. There are no hospitals or schools closer to the village. Apart from all these infra-structure related issues, they had a main problem of accessing to clean water for the drinking and bathing purposes within the village. These villagers travelled about 12 kilometres to collect and carry the water. Elderly people, pregnant ladies, children and patients do suffer without access to clean water within their village. They do not have sufficient income or savings to have water-wells built within their own lands. State water supply schemes have not been extended to such remote villages in Sri Lanka.

In response to this need, the ACT foundation proposed and constructed a tube well with hand pump unit to provide access to clean water for these local dwellers for their daily usage including drinking. This project included constructing the tube well itself as well as a rectangular concrete base around it to enable bathing.

This tube well was handed over to the villagers in April 2024. ACT Foundation is ever grateful to our volunteers on the ground and the sponsors who provided the funds via Manitha Neyam Trust.