Water woes in areas of Jharsuguda township
JHARSUGUDA: While summer has already made its harsh presence felt, most of the Wards within Jharsuguda township limits are yet to provided with drinking water supply by the district administration. A population of 1.16 lakh reside in 27 Wards of the township. However, drinking water supply has been made available for only eight Wards by the Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO). PHEO is supplying drinking water to Wards 3, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23 and 24.
While Wards 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14 and 22 have been partially covered under the drinking water supply facility, the remaining ones have been left out. As per reports, only 1,971 households of the total 25,000 families residing in the township have piped water connection. While the town’s daily requirement is 90 lakh litres of water, the district administration is able to supply only 45 lakh litres, said PHEO sources. There are 220 stand posts in the township area while tube-wells are the only source of drinking water for thousands of people. As per reports, the PHEO lifts water from Ib river, treats it at the purification plant, having 45 lakh litres capacity, at Panchapada and supplies it to the town through overhead tanks of Pahadi temple.
This apart, water is also supplied to the township area through two overhead tanks located near OSAP and Engineering School. PHEO claims it is supplying clean drinking water from the purification plant at Panchapada which was built in 1981. The residents, however, question the quality of water which is supplied using the conventional method of applying alum and lime. Sources said the situation is getting aggravated due to water theft in several Wards. At various places, people are stealing water by cutting pipelines illegally. Besides, consumers in drinking water-rich areas are not depositing water tax every month which is creating bottlenecks for the PHEO, sources said. Contacted, Municipality Chairman Harish Ganatra said, “We have roped in five tankers to supply water in uncovered areas as we expect a surge in complaints during summer.”