Baripada, July 30: Even as residents of Baripada town have been facing shortage of drinking water lately, work on an ambitious drinking water project has been stalled due to opposition by the displaced people.
Jambira project is important for this town with a population of 1.20 lakh. Besides, the water table in the area keeps plunging every year.
The municipality and the PHEO supply water but it falls short.
The town requires 18.60 million litres of water per day, but now only 16.30 million litres is available.
The PHEO authorities said the Jambira water project is being executed at a cost of Rs 84.22 crore. The project involves laying of 122-km-long pipelines to provide 25 million litres of water. The project will be completed by 2020, and the town will no longer face water crisis, it is said.
Earlier, water used to be available 50 feet below the ground, but now it is available only after 70 feet, according to PHEO officials.
Now, work on a 16 million litre water treatment plant has started. The laying of pipes on a 15-km stretch from Jambira river to the treatment plant is also being undertaken.
In the coming days, water and sanitation committees will be set up in each ward. Each committee will have 12 residents as members who will advise the people about the use of sanitised water and ways to curb misuse of water.
The problem is that the groundwater level has been falling in Baripada. Many environmentalists were dismayed to learn about the fall in the groundwater level when a river is flowing nearby and the Similipal forest is just a few kilometres away.
Underground pipelines for a length of 104 km have been laid in the town while over 15,000 people have got water supply connections.
It is said that the authorities concerned have set November 2019 as deadline for the drinking water project. Even as locals said the work is moving at a snail’s pace, the authorities say about 50 percent of the project work is over.
PHEO Executive Engineer Bighneswar Pani said that 1,394 families of 11 villages, who have been displaced for the project, are demanding further compensation for their lands. “That is why the work of the project has been stuck,” he added.
PNN