The Odisha government is working towards providing 135 litres of water per person per day and for piped water supply connection to all urban households, including the slum areas, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said on Wednesday.
Dedicating 100 urban drinking water supply projects in the State at a function held at the Secretariat here, Mr. Patnaik claimed that these projects with a total cost of Rs.63 crore will benefit a lot of families in the 45 urban local bodies in the State.
In order to achieve the objectives, Mr. Patnaik said that efforts should be made to augment water resources in the uncovered areas, to improve transmission and distribution system and replace old pipe networks.
The State government is committed to provide equitable, affordable, sustainable and safe water to all the urban population with a special focus on the poor, he added.
Mr. Patnaik informed that in December last year, the State government had simplified the procedure for providing drinking water supply connections to the urban poor, and this has resulted in increasing 68,000 new household connections benefiting about three lakh urban poor.
He announced that the State government will provide free domestic water supply connections to all urban poor and economically weaker households by waiving the upfront connection fee of Rs.500 per connection. Mr. Patnaik said that the Housing and Urban Development Department has identified 422 water-scare areas in 185 wards of 24 urban local bodies experiencing shortage of water during summer. Apart from providing water through tanks and tankers on a mission mode within a period of two years, efforts should be taken to provide long term solutions, he added.
