HANS INDIA E PAPER 31-5-2026 PAGE NO. 8
Free water camps bring relief in blazing heat
1/05/2026
Aruna Chandaraju
In
the scorching summer heat, free cool drinking water is proving a blessing for
thousands across Hyderabad. The Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisations has set up
around 16 water camps at bus stations, metro points, hospitals and public
places, also serving buttermilk and ragi porridge on select days. The
initiative is bringing relief, hydration and gratitude to commuters, workers
and families battling the intense heat
There is nothing more
welcome and refreshing than a clean, cool glass of drinking water in the
blazing summer heat. If this water comes free of cost, and is sometimes
accompanied also by cold buttermilk and nourishing ragi jaava i.e. porridge,
then the gesture is indeed even more welcome!
This is what the
charitable organisation, Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisations (SSSSO), is doing at
around 16 centres across Hyderabad. This water-supply service is offered from
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. These centres are mostly bus-stations and
metro-rail station areas where thousands of commuters, bus/rail drivers and
conductors are getting off their bus or metro ride. There are other venues
(like a hospital or Ganesha temple) where crowds are found. Among these centres
are the Vijayalakshmi Temple, ESI Hospital, Erragadda; the TSRTC Bus
Reservation Counter, Dilsukhnagar; at the Main Gate, Sarojini Devi Eye
Hospital, Humayun Nagar, Mehdipatnam; CBS, Gowliguda; the teeming-with-people
Uppal Bus Depot, Boduppal; and so on.
This is a special
scheme for summer by SSSSO which is a vast, multinational organisation founded
by spiritual guru and philanthropist Sathya Sai Baba. This programme,
appropriately named Chalivendram or Sathya Sai Summer Water Camp, began in
April-end, and is going to continue until, approximately, early or mid-June. So
far, lakhs of litres of several drinking water and many hundred litres of
buttermilk and ragi jaava (these latter two items are served on select days of
the week) have been provided to these thirsty citizens. Some centres report
disbursing over two thousand litres of drinking water on a daily basis, at
their venue alone.
Besides cool water in
steel glasses, in some centres, a water tap is fixed on the side which is being
used by many to fill their bottles to last them for the rest of the day,
especially bus drivers and conductors pausing here before going on their onward
journeys.
Collaborating with
SSSSO in this Chalivendram programme with regard to the water supply are the
HMWSSB and GHMC. At some centres. the TSRTC is providing the venue for
water-storage. Inaugurating the summer water camp of the Koti Samithi at
Gowliguda in Hyderabad, A. Malleshwar Rao, District President, SSSSO, said: “I
thank our collaborators and wish good health to all who avail of the water and
other items at this water camp.” This summer’ water supply is but one facet of
the multidimensional charitable activities of the SSSSO, founded by
philanthropist Sathya Sai Baba under his twin mottos ‘Help Ever, Hurt Never’;
and ‘Service to Man is Service to God’ which guide the organisation. Hence,
tens of thousands of students have benefitted from his educational institutions
providing high-quality, highly subsidised education from Class 1 to doctoral
level. Altogether, over the last few decades, millions of patients have
benefitted from the zero-cost-to-the-patient Sathya Sai super-specialty
hospitals where the inaugural surgeries were done by heart-transplant pioneer
Dr Panangipalli Venugopal; and the General Hospitals; as well as regular,
nationwide medical camps where doctors from leading hospitals lend their time
and expertise. Moreover, there are free, permanent drinking-water projects as
well as multiple, free-of-cost skill-development programmes for underprivileged
youth which make them eligible for office-jobs or self-employment.
Marri Ramulamma at
CBS, Gowliguda, who had just got off a bus with seven of her family members,
told this writer: “Today, we had to take bus rides to and from on this route,
via this bus stand. The cool refreshing water and buttermilk felt like a
heaven-send.”
Rows of large,
oval-shaped earthenware pots holding water were being used to cool the water
before serving through glasses and via a tap for bottle-filling, at this
Gowliguda bus-stand centre run by Koti Samithi of SSSSO. The Convenor, Koti
Samithi, PV Sastry explained: “We take great pains to ensure that every glass
of water served is both cool and clean.”
At the other centres,
too, there is both relief and gratitude seen in those who receive water daily,
and the buttermilk and ragi jaava served on select days of the week, given the
sweltering heat of the summer. J Narasimhulu, who works as a cleaner at the
Secunderabad Bus Depot, said: “Throughout the summer, I have been drinking
fresh, cool water during the day from the SSSSO centrehere, and at day-end I
take home five large bottles for my family as access to clean drinking water is
not easy where we live.” Indeed, the joy and relief on the faces of these
persons is reward enough for the volunteers who are giving their time and
efforts in manning these camps.
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