Parjang: Around 600 families residing in Kankadasoda of this block in Dhenkanal district are struggling for drinking water as the well for the drinking water supply project built under ‘Basudha’ scheme caved in two days ago.
The deep well of the project caved in Saturday and it is the second such incident in the past 15 days.
The villagers said substandard construction work, too much freedom given to contractors and the lackadaisical attitude of officials were the reasons for the project getting stuck six months after inauguration.
The project was built under ‘Basudha’ scheme to provide drinking water to villagers.
The cost of overhead water tank, laying pipes and other works came to about Rs 1.5 crore. The authorities spent Rs 7 lakh to dig a well. The project inaugurated March 8 benefitted around 600 families.
But the deep well and all equipment caved in Saturday night. The protection wall also collapsed.
The villagers alleged that the contractors were getting work done through petty contractors. The concerned officials are not supervising works regularly.
“Instead of labourers, machines were used to dig the well. Dynamite also was used for the digging. The space around the well was filled not with sand, but with clay,” Bhagaban Sahu, Dushmant Roul and others said.
We had taken up this with the concerned engineer, but no action was taken against the contractor, they said.
As the project has become defunct the problem of getting drinking water has become difficult for the villagers.
While Sarpanch Pabitra Sahu demanded that the project be made functional as soon as possible and action taken against the officers responsible, Zilla Parishad Member Sarat Chandra Sahu said the Nuakualo drinking water project was the first to cave in and that it was followed by the Kankadasoda project.
He said this clearly indicates that the quality of work was sub standard. He urged the Collector to order a Vigilance inquiry.
When contacted, RWSS Executive Engineer attributed the collapse to poor quality. The contractor would be asked to get it reconstructed, he said.
PNN