Kanas: With the rise in daytime temperatures in state, many villages in Kanas block of Puri district have started witnessing drinking water shortage, sources said.
The villagers have urged the district administration to take steps to ensure adequate drinking water supply at Kanas.
The Rural Drinking Water Supply department has dug 900 tube wells and 60 bore wells at 28 gram panchayats under Kanas block to provide drinking water to at least 1.6 lakh people. However, water from a majority of these tube wells and bore wells is saline. Besides, some tube wells are extracting muddy water, the villagers claimed.
According to the villagers, the state government has set up drinking water projects in villages like Benagaon, Pandiakera, Jankia, Gadishagoda, Karamala, Bijipur, Chupuring, Sunakhela, Badala, Dholapatna and Gadabadaput to provide piped water to the people. However, the locals claimed that the water supplied from these projects were not suitable for human use.
“A majority of the drinking water projects in Kanas block is sourcing water from nearby Daya river. However, free flow of untreated sewage from various localities in Bhubaneswar into Daya river has been causing water pollution. The drinking water projects were unable to sterilize the riverwater,” said a villager.
The villagers alleged that some people have blocked the water flow in Daya river at several places. As a result, villagers residing in the downstream were not getting adequate water, sources added.
“Inadequate water in Daya river is affecting many drinking water projects in Kanas area. The Irrigation department and the district administration should take immediate steps to ensure adequate water flow in the river. Besides, the administration should deploy a few tankers to provide potable water to the people,” said a social activist.
Kanas drinking water project junior engineer Ranjan Kumar Samantaray admitted that some drinking water projects in the locality have been affected by inadequate water flow in Daya river.