BHUBANESWAR: Minister for Water Resources Tukuni Sahu on Wednesday launched a water communication strategy ‘Urmi’ and other IT applications that will help resolve the water and sanitation crisis.
Urmi has been developed after a series of consultations held with key stakeholders, including the PRI members, Pani Panchayat members, farmers, sanitation volunteers, SHGs and other frontline workers associated with water management at the institutional, community and household levels.
Among the IT applications, PINSYS is a robust database of water resources engineers for effective human resource management and WaterDox is a web-enabled interface to store documents and legacy data of the department in digital form.
Speaking at the event organised here on the occasion of World Water Day, Sahu said the communication strategy and the IT initiatives will ensure greater involvement of the community in water management and participation in conservation initiatives in the state.
Besides, a series of IT initiatives were also introduced to showcase how technology could bring in transparency and transformation and ensure ease of transaction in the department. The initiatives included water ERP for irrigation management, project monitoring and flood forecasting, covering all the water bodies for planning water use for multiple purposes.
Development commissioner Anu Garg said the game-changing initiatives will bring people closer to governance and get them involved in the process. Principal secretary of Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water department Sushil Kumar Lohani and engineer-in-chief of water resources Bhakta Ranjan Mohanty also spoke.