Rayagada: Development of infrastructure for drinking water facilities in the district has taken a back seat as water bills to the tune of Rs 8.95 crore have remained outstanding on the residents, a report said. Drinking water is supplied to the households in three townships of the district throughout the year. The townships are: Rayagada, Gunupur and Gudari.
The Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) charges a nominal amount of Rs 200 each for supplying drinking water to the households. However, Rs 8 crore is outstanding on the residents in Rayagada town while Rs 70 lakh and Rs 25 lakh have been pending on the households of Gunupur and Gudari towns respectively. While Rayagada town has 12, 400 households, Gunupur has 4, 300 and Gudari has 1,400 households that are availing the drinking water through pipelines. Meanwhile, the PHEO has assigned the task of bill collection to ‘Jalasathis’ – members of women self-help groups (SHGs).
As many as 10 Jalasathis in Rayagada town, four in Gunupur and one in Gudari have managed to collect over Rs 20 lakh towards the outstanding bills. The Jalasathis are moving from door to door with billing machines to collect the outstanding bills.
However, people are turning them away stating that they will visit the office and clear their dues. Sources from PHEO said that the arrear, if collected, will help in development of infrastructure for drinking water supply to the residents. “Moreover, pilferage and misutilisation of drinking water have emerged as major obstacles to upgradation of drinking water supply,” executive engineer of PHEO Sarat Panigrahi said. The state government is losing crores due to pendency of water bills.
Observers said that the PHEO should take urgent steps to recover the arrears before it is too late. Sources from the PHEO said that despite repeated reminders people are not paying their outstanding bills.