ROURKELA: Resentment is brewing among residents of Rourkela City due to frequent disruptions in water supply by the Water Corporation of Odisha (WATCO). Sources said after releasing water on Monday, WATCO, without prior intimation to the consumers, abruptly stopped the supply in the evening. While water supply resumed in some parts of the city on Tuesday morning, others had to wait till the evening.
The authorities cited operational issues of the filtration plant on Monday due to a power outage besides system upgradation by the company as reasons of the disruption. Incidentally, Rourkela with 47,000 connections, is a water surplus city with supply capacity of 78 million litres per day (MLD) against peak supply of 61 MLD.
Contacted, WATCO general manager Adil Mohammad said the concerned staff have been instructed to issue prior notice to consumers’ registered mobile numbers. “The Drink From Tap (DFT) mission would be introduced from December after which consumers need not store water. They would receive round-the-clock water supply with automated supply mechanism for peak and lean hours,” he added.
Sources said for the DFT, modifications are underway in 26 zones at a cost of Rs 19 crore. Besides, new DFT system is underway at nine zones at around Rs 100 crore.Similarly, slum clusters of Gopabandhupali and Timber Colony which have been affected by water shortage, are awaiting supply WATCO intervention.
Years ago the UIDSSMT (Urban Infrastructure Development for Small and Medium Towns) and AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) projects were implemented to augment piped water distribution network with household connections in these slum clusters under wards 23 and 24 of the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC). However, due to faulty and partial project implementation the slum residents continue to face acute shortage of drinking water.
Former councillor of the erstwhile Rourkela Municipality and Gopabandhupali resident Pramila Das said only handful of households of wards 23 and 24 along the Railway Colony main road have access to piped water, while majority remain deprived. “A new overhead tank inaugurated in April 2022 has failed due to technical fault with the distribution networks so slum households struggle to get water,” she said.
Mohammad visited the slum clusters and said in addition to the new existing overhead tank of 7.5 lakh litres another overhead tank of 4 lakh litres would be set up. “Once these works are completed, we would be able to introduce DFT scheme at both the slum clusters by 2023 end,” he assured.