BHUBANESWAR: The State government has decided to extend the operational area of Water Corporation of Odisha (WATCO) to 20 more urban local bodies in order to provide drink from tap and sewerage services.
WATCO will cover Rourkela, Biramitrapur, Sundargarh, Rajgangpur, Baripada, Keonjhar, Joda, Barbil, Karanjia, Champua, Udala, Rairangpur, Anandpur, Vyasanagar, Jharsuguda, Brajaraj Nagar, Belpahar, Berhampur, Gopalpur and Hinjilicut ULBs in the next phase.
The corporation is now implementing the 24x7 Drink From Tap (DFT) Mission as part of which, Puri became the first city in the country to have round-the-clock facility for its people and pilgrims from around the world.
WATCO has set an ambitious target of achieving DFT in 20 cities before December 2023. Initially set up for drinking water supply and sewerage services in Bhubaneswar, Khurda and Jatni ULBs on pilot basis, its operational area was extended to Cuttack Municipal Corporation area and Puri Municipality area in 2020.
The operational area was extended to cover Pipli, Konark and Nimapara NAC last year. “The agency has also been entrusted with the responsibility of managing the state-of-the-art water quality testing labs established on PPP mode in the State and implement the water metering projects in all ULBs,” said an official of Housing and Urban Development department. Meanwhile, the State government has also set the target to provide functional tap connection to all households by 2024. Of the 85.66 lakh rural households in Odisha, the government claimed to have covered 23.25 lakh under tap water connection.
All households in 2,996 villages are now getting safe drinking water and 57 panchayats have been declared as ‘Har Ghar Jal’ ones which means all the households in these panchayats have been provided with the piped-water connections.While 89 mega drinking water projects for rural areas are under implementation, the government has spent more than Rs 3,800 crore in the last three years to provide all urban households with piped water supply by end of this fiscal.