Across India, access to safe drinking water remains uneven, and the gap is often felt most sharply in the places people spend their days. A child fills a bottle between classes at a government school. A patient’s family waits through long hours in a hospital corridor. A daily wage worker pauses for a drink while passing through a public institution on a hot summer afternoon.
It was this gap that District Governor CA Deepak Surana set out to address. On August 3, 2025, at the District Cabinet Installation Ceremony in Vadodara, he made a public promise: 100 Water Cooler–Water Purifier units would be installed across schools, hospitals, colleges, and public institutions throughout District 3232-F1 within the year. International President Dr. A. P. Singh was there to hear it. So were representatives of every Lions club in the district.
What followed was 300 days of coordinated service.
Lions clubs mobilised. Donors came forward. Cabinet members, club officers, senior Lion leaders, and community well-wishers each took ownership of part of the mission. As momentum gathered, the original target of 100 units no longer seemed ambitious enough. By the end of the campaign, the goal had grown to 125.
Each unit represented far more than a piece of hardware — it had to be sourced, funded, installed, and dedicated through collective effort before it could begin serving the community.
The project marked itself at each milestone. On September 17, 2025 — the Prime Minister’s birthday — the first 11 units were inaugurated and dedicated to the Nagar Prathmik Shikshan Samiti. On May 1, 2026, Gujarat Foundation Day, the 100th unit was installed at the Mahagujarat Praneta Indulal Yagnik Trust. On June 17, 2026, the 120th unit was inaugurated at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, an institution that reflects Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III’s enduring legacy of expanding public education and civic infrastructure. The 125th and final unit will be inaugurated on June 30, 2026.
The arithmetic of that achievement is quietly remarkable. One hundred and twenty-five units in 300 days works out to a new installation roughly every two and a half days.
If each unit serves an average of 200 students and citizens every day, the 125 installations together will benefit nearly 25,000 people daily. That reach will grow over the years — into school corridors where children no longer think twice before drinking, into hospital waiting areas where a family managing a difficult day finds at least one thing taken care of, into public spaces where clean water is simply there, as it should be.
District Governor CA Deepak Surana was measured in how he described it. “These 125 units are far more than machines,” he said. “Every glass of clean drinking water served through them reflects the true spirit of Lionism and our commitment to serving society.” The Lions logo on each unit also serves as a brand building activity, making the association’s service visible to the community.
The district had set out to install 100 units. It finished with 125.