The Pioneer 30.04.2013
All urban households to get piped water in 10 yrs
Ahead of municipal
elections in September, the State Government on Monday decided to
formulate a new drinking water policy soon with a target to cover all
households in the urban areas with safe drinking water through meter
connectivity in next 10 years.
The draft strategy paper relating to the Odisha State Urban Area
Drinking Water Supply policy is in an advance stage of finalisation and
would be put up in the next Cabinet meeting in May next for clearance,
said Urban Development Minister Debi Prasad Mishra after a high level
review meeting on urban water supply scheme chaired by Chief Minister
Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat on Monday.
Mishra said that piped water connectivity will be provided to all
households in103 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in 50 per cent of the
partially and uncovered areas by end of the 12th five year plan period.
So far, piped water supply connectivity has been ensured to around 2, 88, 987 households in the ULBs, he said.
Of the total 1,872 wards in the 103 ULBs, 1,153 wards are fully
covered, 564 wards are partially covered and 155 wards are not covered
with piped water supply at present. The State Government is implementing
a total of 509 schemes for improvement and augmentation of water supply
to cater to the need in 103 ULBs with a total project cost of Rs 716.22
crore. Stating that the daily per head requirement of drinking water is
135 liter as per the national yardstick, he said in Odisha the per
capita availability of drinking water in 11 ULBs is above the national
standard while in 13 other bodies, the availability of drinking water is
around 100 to 135 liter per head. While the per head water availability
is at rate of 70 to 100 liter per day, the residents of rest 49 ULBs
are getting drinking water below 70 liters per head, he informed.
The Urban Development Minister said that the proposed policy envisages
100 per cent coverage of safe drinking water through piped water scheme
to all the households in ULBs with metered connectivity in next ten
years. The policy would ensure regular required water supply with exact
billing and check usage of excess water as well as regulate wastage of
drinking water. The consumers would have to pay the water bills every
month for their usage like electricity, he said.
Mishra said that during the current financial year, an estimated Rs
25.20 crore was provided for new piped water supply project in 103 ULBs.
Besides, for the ongoing piped water supply projects, an estimated Rs
74.30 crore has been provided in this year’s budget, he told.
The Chief Minister during the review asked the authorities of the Urban
Development department to ensure drinking water connectivity to all the
schools and Anganwadi centres in the urban areas.
Notably, during the current financial year, the State Government
provided Rs 5.15 crore for drinking water connectivity to the schools
and Anganwadi centres in the ULBs. An estimated Rs 754.23 crore would be
spent for implementing integrated sewerage project in Bhubaneswar,
which would be divided into six sewerage districts for treatment of
sewerage.
The Chief Minister directed the Urban Development department to set up
49 community toilets in the State capital region to make the city open
defecation free. Mishra also said that in order to meet the drinking
water need, it was decided to set up as many as 4,000 new tube wells in
distress areas by June next.
