Brentwood is on course to raise a magnificent £100,000 in an amazing community effort to take clean drinking water to thousands of people living in one of the poorest regions of India.

The Stepping Stones water project - which aims to provide fresh water bore wells in the extreme south east of India in and around Madurai in Tamil Nadu - is part of the Essex Millennium Festival 2000 to commemorate the new millennium.

An original target of £30,000 was reached and passed in record time. To date £65,000 has been pledged and £80,000 worth of projects; the water programme along with a micro-credit scheme and education projects are under way.

"We could well top £100,000," said a delighted Michael Dunne, chairman of Stepping Stones.

"Brentwood should be very proud of a community project which is unique, not only in Essex but throughout the country. I hope that it will be a bluprint which other communities and groups will be able to emulate," he said.

Festival 2000 was launched last summer setting up a fund to award thousands of pounds to youth and environmental projects throughout Essex.

But it is the third 'arm' of the Festival - the Stepping Stones water project - which has caught the imagination.

Determined to mark the millennium in a unique way, Brentwood, with some Chelmsford organisations, took up the challenge.

Almost all of the town's schools, dozens of individuals and many of its churches and clubs quickly became involved, money came pouring in with pledges of more.

A bore well, overhead storage tank and pipeline to supply drinking water and toilets to one of Madurai's most deprived inner-city schools has just come on stream - a gift from the town's St Helen's Junior School pupils who raised £900 for the project.

A 13 strong Stepping Stones observation team, which financed a 10 day trek around projects, has just returned.

"Every member of the team is so proud of what Brentwood and Chelmsford as well as rotary clubs scattered throughout Essex are doing," said Michael Dunne.

"This tremendous community effort and commitment which is set to continue long after this millennium year is over, will go down in the annuls of local history. We should all of us be very proud."

Waiting on: This child waits for her mother's return from working in the fields.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.