Khandapara: ‘Water, water everywhere, not a drop to drink’. Well this line from the poem ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge probably is the way the plight of the residents of Nayagarh town can be best described. When water is of premium importance, it is going to sheer waste here.
The residents of the town have a hard time in even acquiring a pitcher full of drinking water in this scorching summer. What they, however, see is that the water being wasted as the pipes which supply it have developed cracks and gaping holes.
Sources said that way back in 1993 the then Odisha government had commissioned a mega drinking water project near Kantilo-Banpur in this district at an estimated cost of 20.79 lakh. However, work on the project only started in 2016. A 30-kilometre pipeline was built to supply water to Nayagarh town was laid.
But since its commissioning the project has been plagued by problems, the main among them being cracks and fissures on the pipe. This is because they walls of the pipe do not have the capacity to sustain the pressure created when water from the Mahanadi river is directed through the pipe through a 100 horsepower (HP) pump.
This has resulted in seepage of water even before it reaches the residents of the town. The worst sufferers are those who stay near the Kuanria bridge on Kantilo-Benagadia PWD main road.
“People are having a harrowing time to even acquire a pitcher full of water. For the last five days we are seeing water gushing out of a joint which is broken between 4.00pm-5.00pm. Hence it never reaches our taps,” locals alleged.
Many awareness programmes to save water has been launched by the Central and State Government. But then these does not hold good for Nayagarh town.
“At a time when people really need water and to see it go to waste, really pains us,” others observed. The gushing water has created another problem also. It is causing massive damage to soil conservation.
When contacted, Nayagarh PWD assistant engineer Trilochan Behera said, “Steps would soon be taken to arrest the problem.”
But there is a flip side to the tale too. The visitors and picnickers coming to the Maa Ramchandi temple have an abundant supply of water flowing out of the broken joint.
PNN