SUNDARGARH: While the district headquarters town of Sundargarh faces acute shortage of drinking water in summer with its lifeline Ib river running dry, the indecisiveness of Water Resources department over two water storage proposals has aggravated the crisis.
A low-height bridge-cum-barrage proposal was mooted at Kopsingha near Sundargarh town way back in 2013.
But due to involvement of hefty cost, it was given a quiet burial.
After wasting a couple of years, the department proposed to replace the bridge-cum-barrage proposal with a Pick-Up Weir plan at Darbartangar.
An official letter of the Office of Superintending Engineer of the SIC to then Collector on January 30, 2018 had sought approval for sanction of Rs 66.74 lakh from District Mineral Foundation (DMF) for survey of the Pick-Up Weir proposal by the Ib Investigation Division.
However, no progress was made on the proposal and the district administration, as a pressing need, insisted on another project.
In April 2018, then Sundargarh Collector Vineet Bhardwaj had stated that the Pick-Up Weir proposal was stuck over the issue of feasibility and the administration had decided to construct an ‘In-stream Storage’ on Ib river upstream of Darbartangar over a length of 2.5 km with Rs 50 crore from the DMF.
Bhardwaj was transferred and his successor Surendra Kumar Meena too got little time as he was also shifted in 10 months.
Current Collector Rashmita Panda, who joined during the end of this year, also could not find time to expedite the ‘In-stream Storage’ proposal due to the General Elections.
Incidentally, then Superintending Engineer of SIC and Executive Engineer of Ib Investigation Division, who were associated with the two proposals, also got transferred before the elections and since then, the fate of both the projects hangs in the balance.
While the post of SIC Superintending Engineer is lying vacant, new Ib Investigation Division Executive Engineer P K Pradhan said he doesn’t have complete information about the two proposals and would look into them soon.
Meanwhile, local BJP leader Dr H S Sarangi warned of intensifying protest if there is any further delay in execution of the proposals.
He said in absence of water in Ib river, the ongoing piped water supply project worth Rs 32 crore would be useless.
Besides, a mega irrigation project coming up near the College Bridge area might also worsen the water crisis in downstream region, Sarangi added.