Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Dec 3:

Despite a slew of measures initiated by the Odisha government, piped water supply is yet to reach as many as 811 Panchayats and 543 villages inhabited by primitive scheduled tribes in the state.

drinking water

The startling revelation came up during a review meeting on rural water supply and sanitation projects at the secretariat chaired by Cchief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday.

The Chief Minister asked the water supply department to ensure piped water supply to these areas by March 2015.

As per the data presented at the meeting, infrastructure has been laid out for piped water supply to 5421 out of the 6232 panchayat headquarters in Odisha. However, not all villages in these pachayats get piped water. Not a single village in the rest 811 panchayats gets piped water, the meeting revealed.

The infrastructure required for piped water supply doesn’t even exist in 543 villages inhabited by primitive tribes.

While  high fluoride content has been found in the drinking water sources in 905 villages of Nuapada district, piped water is being supplied to only 505 of them leaving nearly 400 villages uncovered and creating a potential health hazard in the process.

The Chief Minister has asked officials to accord highest priority to piped water supply to these villages. Minister for Rural Development Badri Narayan Patra, development commissioner and secretaries of Water Resources and Energy departments were present in the review meeting.