BHUBANESWAR: The State Government will set up a mega drinking water project to address the perennial drinking water problem of Nuapada district,
The Rural Development department has floated tenders for the proposed project which is estimated to cost `752 crore. The Finance department has given its concurrence. The project will be financed by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).
This will be the second mega project in the country after Tamil Nadu. The project will be implemented on turnkey basis through EPC (engineering, procurement & construction) contract. The EPC contractor will run and maintain the project for five years after completion, Principal Secretary of Rural Development department Pradipta Mohapatra said.
Water for the mega drinking water project will be drawn from four sources, including Patora dam. About 905 villages of Nuapada district and Golamunda block of Kalahandi district will be benefited from the project, he said.
A water treatment plant will be set up to purify the water sourced from four dams and one overhead tank will be constructed in every three-four panchayats for supply of water though pipe to each household.
A budgetary provision of `150 crore has been made for the first year and the project is targeted for completion within 36 months, he said. As ground water in large parts of Nuapada district is affected with high fluoride content, the department has made interim arrangements for providing safe drinking water to the affected villages till the completion of the project.
While the permissible limit of fluoride in water is 0.5 to 1 mg per litre, as per a survey done by Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS), the groundwater in Boden has 1.5-3 mg fluoride content per litre.
Of the total affected villages, 305 villages are being supplied with water through pipes while the remaining 600 meet their requirement from tube wells. As many as 5,023 villages in the State are facing quality water problem and the department has decided to cover these villages under pipe water supply on a priority basis.