Keonjhar: The population of Keonjhar municipal area has increased from 66,000 in 2011 to nearly 80,000 now.
But the amount of drinking water that is being supplied by the Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) in the civic area limits does not suffice for Keonjhar city. The people here are suffering from an acute shortage of drinking water.
Most of the time there is no regular water supply in the city, and the department supplies drinking water through tankers. The hardship becomes too much in summer.
There are four water treatment plants at Judia Ghati, on the suburbs of Keonjhar. There are two reservoirs of 50,000 gallon capacity each and another reservoir of one lakh gallon capacity located on Jail Road, College Road and the medical area of Keonjhar.
Drinking water is supplied to the city thrice a day. The treatment plant at Badaposhi purifies water using chlorine, bleaching powder, alum or limestone, and the water is supplied thrice a day.
Giving his views, Assistant Engineer of Keonjhar PHED Ghasiram Majhi said, “We are collecting 66 lakh litres of water from Badaghagara waterfall and purify it at the treatment plant in Judia Ghati. We collect 33 lakh litres from Kanajhari dam and purify it at the treatment plant in Badaposhi. This comes to nearly 99 lakh litres. But the requirement is around about 1.05 crore litres of drinking water in the Keonjhar civic area,” he added.
PNN