Post News Network
Bhubaneswar: Opposition Congress and BJP Monday flayed state government over the drinking water crisis in many rural and urban areas of the state at a time when the Met officials have warned of a scorching summer ahead.
Bringing an adjournment motion in this regard, Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra said, “People are facing water scarcity as groundwater levels have gone down in many areas. The piped water system in the state is also in a sorry state.”
“The piped water supply is poor and the system is lying defunct in many places. Electricity failure and poor operation of these systems are also adding to the plight of the people,” Mishra said. “According to a survey, as reported in the media, 38 per cent families in the state travel at least half a kilometer for drinking water. Yet the state government is hardly concerned about it,” Mishra added.
“The water quality is substandard in many blocks and panchayats and nobody is there to look after it and sort out the issue,” Mishra rued. “The tanker supply exists only on pen and paper.” Mishra asked the rural development minister to send a chief engineer to conduct a field study and find out the number of areas where people are facing water scarcity and submit it to the government by March 31 this year.
BJP member Rabi Narayan Nayak, who spoke on the issue, said deaths due to consumption of unhygienic water are rampant in the state. He said though the state government has planned for implementation of piped water supply projects, tender process is yet to start in many cases.
Replying to Opposition members, rural development minister Badri Narayan Patra said, “The state government is concerned about the issue.”
“So far we have set up 4.3lakh tube wells in rural areas and have also implemented 10,228 piped water supply projects to provide drinking water facilities in 34,704 villages and revenue villages,” he added.
He further said the state government has been able to dig 17,700 tubewells from its own resources.
He said the state government has planned a mega piped water supply project for which `26,000crore is required and initially tender process is on for a `752cr project to provide safe drinking water in fluoride-affected areas of Nuapada and Kalahadi. He said so far 600 de-fluoridation plants have been set up by government at various places to ensure safe drinking water in quality affected areas in the state.
Patra agreed to send a chief engineer of his department to Bolangir to take stock of the situation.
