Sandeep Mishra
Post News Network
BHUBANESWAR: Water supply in the capital city is plagued by a complete mismatch between demand and supply.
The public health engineering organisation (PHEO) supplies 295.30 million litres per day (MLD), which prima facie is more than double the 120.62 MLD that is required for the population of 9.8 lakh of the city.
On the other hand, nearly 43 per cent of the households are yet to get connections from piped water, according to a study done by the Regional Centre for Development Cooperation (RCDC).
Of this, 147.65 MLD or 50 per cent is non-revenue water according to PHEO, as it is lost during distribution, either through leakages or because of theft.
However, the remaining 147.65 is more than what is required to supply water to all the households of the city.
The per capita supply of water according to state government norms is 135 litres per day, while according to the standard norms in India for a city like Bhubaneswar each person should be provided with 155 litres per day. Going by this calculation, the requirement would be 140.78 MLD in the city.
“The supply of water is enough for the city despite the 50 per cent loss every day,” said Chittaranjan Jena, superintending engineer PHEO.
“As per standard norms in India, people in a city of this level should be provided a minimum of 155 litres per capita per day. However, PHEO considers a demand based on a standard of 135 litres per capita per day,” said Bimal Panda
of RCDC.
About 7.9 lakh persons in the city have piped water supply, while as many as 1.98 lakh do not have access to PHEO water. Of this PHEO sources said only 67,000-odd are registered consumers.
“Off the total population, nearly 67,000 are registered consumers of water. We haven’t installed water meters in common households. At least 1 per cent of the water supplied by us is metered while the bill in each household is calculated on the basis of the number of taps and the number of members,” said Jena.
“We have fully covered 33 out of the total 67 wards in the city and 34 wards are partly have piped water connections,” said Jena.
The PHEO official said the losses in distribution are mainly because of leakages and water theft by households and private tankers. “We have a helpline number. Consumers of a particular area could call us and we will send our team to undertake repairs. Moreover, as the water is not metered, the fear of non-revenue water is high,” said Jena.
PHEO plans to install water meters in every household soon to curb water losses and theft as well as decrease the burden of non-revenue water, he said.
