Odisha to establish water academy to provide quality services

Bhubaneswar: With an aim to provide quality water to people and ensure better waste water management, the Odisha government today decided to set up the ‘Odisha Water Academy’ at Bhubaneswar.

The first-of-its-kind initiative in the country will function as a pioneering training and capacity building institution in the field of water and wastewater service provision.

In a statement, the government said the main objective of the water academy is to enhance the quality and service levels in the sector for customer satisfaction and for better health and environment outcomes.

Pratap Jena, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Law, stated that safe drinking water and wastewater service provision to each urban household in the state is a priority of the Government.

The Academy will be beneficial to the personnel working under the Water Corporation of Odisha (WATCO), Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO), Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage Board (OWSSB) and other related organisations supporting the sector and services for their capacity development, he added.

The training and capacity building will be undertaken by the water academy for both managers and workers and will include both at induction and in-house stages.

It will enable them to remain up-to-date with state-of-the-art, innovative, hi-tech technologies and advanced management skills to run the water and wastewater business in the State more efficiently than before, the government statement added.

The academy would be registered as a Society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and would work under the administrative control of WATCO.

It would be managed under its own Memorandum of Association and Rules & Regulations with a Governing Body headed by the Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department-cum-Chairman, WATCO and supported by a professional Training Partner team and world-class professional institutional partnership.