Jharsuguda: An outbreak of jaundice has become an annual affair in two major municipal corporations – Cuttack and Sambalpur thanks to miserable state of sanitation and water contamination in these areas.
While the health department has been battling to make these two cities free from this deadly waterborne disease, people of Jharsuguda, another western Odisha town, are all set to suffer from jaundice.
The situation is likely to be explosive as Jharsuguda town lacks in quality health care service that is available in Cuttack and Sambalpur, predicted the experts.
Though there are 24 wards in Jharsuguda municipality, sanitation and drinking water facilities are not available to all citizens of the town. The municipality has roped in Sulabh, a private agency, to manage the sanitation system in the town and is spending over Rs 1 crore annually.
However, the agency is not doing its duty sincerely as heaps of garbage are seen all over the place. One such pocket is near Mangal Bazaar Chhak in this town.
There is a stand post close the drain. It seems that the drain water is flowing through the tap water as the pipe of drinking water is submerged in the drain.
While passersby and traders collect tap water for their use, local residents also collect it for domestic use. Besides, fruit vendors sprinkle the water to keep their stock fresh. Even as hundreds of people use the water, no one is sure whether it is suitable for human consumption, it was learnt.
It is feared that hundreds of people may suffer at a time as they use contaminated tap water.
On the other hand, the public health engineering organisation (PHEO) has failed to meet the water needs of half of the population in the town. While there is a need for 18.16 million litre of water in the town, the PHEO has so far managed only 4.94 million litre of water in eight wards.
This makes people to collect water from a broken stand post inside a drain.
When contacted, PHEO assistant executive engineer KS Patel said the officer concerned would be asked to renovate the drain and repair the stand post.
Municipality chairman Harish Ganatra said people are dumping waste in the uncovered drain. It would soon be covered up, he assured.