Urban News

The health wing of Cuttack Municipal Corporation from today started a drive  to raid shops, hotels and restaurants to check the sale of water pouches without the mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards’ (BIS) ISI mark. A special team of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) today raided shops at  Badambadi, Link Road, Jhanjiri Mangala, Medical road, etc, and seized about 1,000 water pouches. The raids and screenings will continue through the  ensuing Durga Puja festival.

Health Officer Dr NC Raj said the move was to ensure that people did not fall prey to the water-borne diseases by consuming packaged water sourced from dubious manufacturers. The demand for packaged drinking water has been spiralling in the recent times. But not many are aware of the fact that the  water they are consuming might have been packaged without undergoing any  purification process by illegal manufacturers that have mushroomed across  the State. Major suppliers to the city are manufacturers from the southern pockets like Berhampur and other coastal towns like Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur.

“With cholera being reported from the southern part of the State, we have to be vigilant and ensure that contaminated water does not creep into the city and lead to an outbreak. Besides, the ensuing Puja festivities pose the necessity for extra caution,’’ Dr Raj said.

The issue of sale of non-certified water pouches has been drawing concern for the last several years with the Orissa High Court also directing for action to curtail their proliferation. The Court in December 2007 had directed the  Government to strictly implement the laws under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. The House Committee on Environment has also urged the Government to enact a law to regulate the manufacturing units.

In a Public Interest Litigation filed in the Orissa High Court in 2006, some Berhampur-based BIS certified manufacturers had raised the question of grant of licence to uncertified packaging units. They stated that a safety and quality compliant unit would involve an investment of `30-40 lakh. But just packaging plain water into pouches could be done at household level without any substantial investment. And with suspect water quality, the threat to public health was enormous.

The State Government gave administrative approval for augmentation of water supply to Rairangpur municipality in June 2003 at an estimated cost of ` 5.83 crore under the Accelerated Urban Water Supply Programme (AUWSP) sponsored by the Centre.

The project envisaged drawing water from the  Khadkhai irrigation project reservoir at Suleipat in Mayurbhanj district. The  project was targeted for commissioning in 2005.

As the AUWSP was scheduled for closure in 2006-07, the Centre stipulated that  in case the project was not completed by April 2007, no further funds would  be provided and the amount already released was to be refunded with penal interest.

The project started from February 2004 and the major components like water pumping systems, the underground and overhead reservoirs and raw water conveying main pipeline for 4 km were completed by July 2006.

But,  when the laying of the remaining 12-km conveying main pipeline was about to be taken up, the local villagers protested and did not allow further execution on apprehension that the water in the reservoir would not be adequate to  irrigate their agricultural fields after release of water for the drinking water scheme.

The CAG said further work of the project was not allowed to be executed as  on January 2009 calling for refund of the Central share of ` 2.92 crore with penal interest.

The expenditure of ` 5.65 crore on the project remained unfruitful including the cost of 11,816 meters of ductile iron pipes for ` 1.34 crore purchased for raw water main pipeline.