CUTTACK: The flood in Mahanadi river system has hit drinking water supply in the Millennium City for the last seven days with deposit of sand in the 129 MLD water treatment plant’s intake well located here at Chahata.Water supply to households in many parts of the city has been reduced considerably along with restricted supply hours.
“We realised that we are getting far less water than usual in the last few days. The supply duration has also been reduced to just one hour. There is also irregularity in the time fixed for supply of drinking water,” said Sanjay Pani of Sutahat.
Echoing the same, residents of several other localities in the city too complained about irregular and scanty drinking water supply by Water Corporation of Odisha Limited (Watco). According to reports, migration of the city’s drinking water system from groundwater sources to surface was made operational under Atal Mission For Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme with the establishment of a water treatment plant having 129 MLD capacity at CDA-Sector-12 and an intake well in Mahanadi at Chahata in January 2022. The water treatment plant had been supplying drinking water to above 60 per cent of the entire residential areas of the city.
Sources said, the intake well at Chahata which used to draw 6,000 mtr cubic raw water per hour is now able to draw maximum 4,000 to 4,500 mtr cubic raw water per hour due to accumulation of sand in the intake well.
General Manager, WATCO Cuttack division, Debabrata Mohanty said the problem has been lingering for about 4-6 days due to deposit of huge amount of sand near the intake well, which is hindering the flow of raw water into it. As raw water intake has been restricted, the production well at the treatment plant is facing problems, he said.