Rural Mega Water Supply & Drink From Tap Mission Projects Getting Functional in Keonjhar District

Bureau,Odishabarta

Five Rural Mega Piped Water Supply Projects in the District for over 2.81 Lakh Households

24/7 Drink From Tap Mission for 5 ULBs covering over 45 Thousand Homes

OMBADC Supports the initiatives as a Priority Sector

Bhubaneswar/Keonjhar, 08 July 2023: Safe and clean drinking water is important to ensure public health. Hence, providing potable water to the people at their doorstep across urban and rural areas is key for the administration. In line with the same, ten piped water supply projects are being made operational in different locations at Keonjhar district with the support of Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC).

5 Mega Drinking Water Supply projects have been taken up for the benefit of rural people in Keonjhar district. Out of those, 4 projects are fully supported by OMBADC while one project is being funded in convergence with OMBADC and District Mineral Foundation (DMF).

“Earlier getting access to potable water was a problem. Now drinking water is available through pipes at our doorstep. I can use it for cooking as well as other household chores. This saves time from standing in queue and I can tend to other household tasks now”, says Jyotsnarani Dhal of Bangore village in Hatadihi block.

The rural Mega Piped Water Supply project functional at Hatadihi Block enables access to pure drinking water for the people of 19 villages. With all five projects running in tandem in the coming days, over 2 lakh 81 thousand households across 1,558 villages in the district stand to benefit.

The ‘Drink From Tap Mission’, a flagship programme of the state government aims to provide 24/7 tap water supply to the urban populations in Odisha. Under the vision, 24/7 water supply projects are being implemented at Keonjhar, Joda, Badbil, Anandapur and Champua ULBs in Keonjhar district, fully funded by OMBADC.

With few of the projects operational, round the clock drinking water supply has been made available for 24 thousand 525 families. Once all Drink From Tap Mission projects are completed in the district, a total of 45 thousand 745 households in urban areas shall access clean drinking water.

“Being a mining area, the groundwater had iron and other mineral content. Now that we get round the clock clean water from tap at our homes, our worries are over. We can also drink water directly from the tap,” says Basant Mahanta, a resident of Champua NAC.

Under the ‘Drink From Tap Mission’ in urban areas, members of Mission Shakti Women Self Help Groups have been engaged by the administration as Jala Sathi for water quality monitoring, door-to-door meter reading and water bill collection. It aids in smooth water management by the SHG Women while ensuring their livelihood.

“Drinking water is a basic necessity for people. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals has set a target of providing clean drinking water to all people by 2030. Various drinking water projects are being carried out by the administration to deliver piped water to people’s homes in both rural and urban areas of Keonjhar district,” says Bishnu Prasad Acharya, Chief Development Officer and Executive Officer of Zilla Parishad Keonjhar.

Various rivers flow through Keonjhar district. Water is being lifted from these rivers through intake wells. It is then purified at water treatment plant using modern process and the treated drinking water is supplied to every household.