Ranchi, July 28: Class VI student Sangeeta Kacchap is beaming, holding a glass of water. “Dekhiye, aaj hum saaf pani pee rahe hai (See, we’re drinking clean water),” she enthusiastically told everyone.

Yesterday, just a day after The Telegraph’s Tuesday report “Students drink muddy water”, the state drinking water and sanitation department got defunct filters replaced at Rajkiyakrit Madhya Vidyalaya, Tikratoli in Nagri block, 18km from the capital.

Sangeeta had become used to drinking impure water when seven water filters, installed in her school under the aegis of Jalmani, a central government-sponsored scheme initiated by ministry of rural development to supply “standalone drinking water purification systems” to rural cradles, became defunct eight months ago.

Around 426 students from Classes I-VIII and 10 teachers will now access clean water. After the story was published in The Telegraph, the state drinking water and sanitation department swung into action and got in touch with Ranchi-based Solar Industries, which had supplied the filters.

The company sent two employees yesterday to replace defunct candles and taps of water filters, supplied to the school eight months ago. Each blue plastic filter is fitted with 12 candles. After checking, the employees replaced 15 candles and five taps. The company also got school principal Vinod Kumar Dwivedi to certify that the job was done.

Dwivedi and schoolteachers, who had not expected any action, have been pleasantly surprised. “I am happy that we are now getting comparatively cleaner water,” said the principal.

“The company staff rebuked us for giving information to the media,” a teacher added, but refused to be named.

But Rajiv Kumar Ranjan, another teacher, said he now felt relaxed. “After the midday meal, students will get filtered water to drink. They always used to ask, ‘sir, saaf pani kab ayega (when will we get clean water)’,” he said.

Science teacher Anita Kumari was also appreciative of the quick action. “Frankly, we had lost all hope that our water filters will get new candles,” she said.

Chief engineer of state drinking water and sanitation department S. Narayan said henceforth they would monitor all schools that had got filters. “We’ll send our officials regularly to check the quality of filters supplied in schools,” he promised.

In Jharkhand, among 33,593 primary and middle schools, 1,537 required water filters. But only 381 were covered in 2010-2011, revealing the slow pace of implementation.

For now, however, Class VI student Karamchand Bhagat has the last word. “I’ll carry home filtered water for my younger sister. It’s a dream come true,” he said.