PATNAGARH: Life has come to a grinding halt in Patnagarh NAC (Notified Area Council) owing to the rising temperature and water crisis. There is not enough water in the NAC to meet the daily requirement of people.
Patnagarh NAC comprises 15 Wards and the per day water requirement is 26 lakh litres. Currently, the administration is able to provide just 11 lakh litres of water to households.
The 206 standposts and 338 tubewells in the town have gone dry. Through piped water supply projects, water is supplied to households for a short span of time once in two to three days. Though there is some water is rivers and ponds, the ground water level is rapidly going down.
The Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) has been supplying water through tankers but sources in the PHED said the arrangement might not continue for a long time as all the water sources are drying up.
Situation is no better in rural blocks of Belpada, Khaprakhol and Patnagarh.
As far as piped water supply is concerned, there are 26 such projects in Belpada block of which seven are defunct. The number of defunct piped water supply projects in Khaprakhol block is three out of the total 47. In Patnagarh block, five projects of 35 are non-functional. The functional projects will be of no use once the ground water level goes down, locals said.
Of 1,329 tubewells in Belpada block, 11 are lying defunct while in Khaprakhol block, four of 1,146 are non-functional. In Patnagarh block, out of 1,579 tubewells at least eight are lying defunct.
Women collecting water from pits on dry river beds of Subarnarekha and Mayawati rivers or queuing near standposts are a common sight in many parts of the NAC.
Patnagarh Sub-Collector, Sarat Chandra Panda said he has convened a meeting of officials concerned and efforts are being made to provide safe drinking water to every family.