ROURKELA: With the onset of summer, water scarcity has raised its ugly head again this year in slum pockets under Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) limits.
Residents of Deogaon slum on Wednesday met the Rourkela ADM and RMC Administrator K Sudershan Chakravorty over water scarcity due to defunct pipelines of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP). Slum dwellers residing at internal pockets of Gopabandhu slum clusters at Railway Colony along with dwellers of Bonamunda area face acute shortage of water with existing tubewells failing to yield water due to fall in ground water table.
The Public Health & Engineering Department (PHED) has extended its main pipeline up to Gopabandhupali slum clusters and provides water through stand-posts installed along the main road of Railway Colony, but internal areas are left out.
Rourkela District Congress Committee (RDCC) president Biren Senapati and former Congress MLA Pravat Mohapatra said the administration should take note of the problems faced by the slum dwellers and ensure adequate supply of drinking water to them. The administration has started installation of synthetic tanks for storage of water at dry pockets. So far, 40 synthetic tanks with total capacity of 40,000 litres have been installed at Gopabandhupali, Madhusudanpali and other areas.
Chakravorty said as per demand, the administration is supplying synthetic tanks as an immediate relief. A few tanks are also being installed at Deogaon and RSP has been instructed to take necessary steps to renovate the pipelines at Deogaon area. He said the administration is working on long-term plans to extend water supply pipelines to uncovered areas of the RMC limits under the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation.