BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to prevent, control and manage water-borne diseases, the state government has decided to strengthen coordination between the field functionaries of Health and Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) departments.
As per the decision, the health team at district level will work in coordination with the team of WATCO general manager or superintending engineer of public health engineering organisation (PHEO) to meet the challenges of water quality monitoring.
Separate WhatsApp groups will be created for districts and municipal corporations with key officials as members. Whenever there will be an occurrence of any water-borne diseases (more than five cases), the information will be shared with the WATCO GM or superintending engineer of PHEO immediately by the health officials.
Similarly, when any leakage in pipeline or water contamination issue comes to the notice of WATCO/PHEO, the information will be shared with the health officials instantly.
Water sample collection for testing in any area will be done jointly by the health and WATCO/ PHEO staff at the time of occurrence of any such incident. The water quality monitoring through requisite tests will be done at the point of use, storage, stand post, treatment plant and any other point which is found important by the visiting rapid response teams.
Secretaries of Health and H&UD departments have issued a joint instruction to all the collectors, WATCO CEO and CDMOs in this regard.
A senior health official said the joint monitoring will help in disease surveillance, laboratory surveillance, environmental surveillance, water quality monitoring and disinfection of drinking water sources to prevent outbreak of water-borne diseases.
The coordination between the two departments and regular sharing of information will support generation of early warning signals which will facilitate both the teams to expedite preventive and mitigation measures in urban areas, he added.