Puri Drink From Tap Project In Shambles Due To 'Poor Maintenance'

In a bid to provide safe drinking water directly from tap round the clock, the Odisha government had launched the ‘Sujal-Drink from Tap Mission’ in Puri on July 26 last year. However, the euphoria over the project seems to be short-lived as it failed to produce the desired result due to alleged poor maintenance.

The government, through the scheme, had set a target to supply safe drinking water to 2.5 lakh residents of Puri, besides nearly two crore people who visit the pilgrim city annually. It was expected that the visitors coming to the city would no longer need to carry plastic bottles around and can drink water directly from the 400 fountains set up in the city, 120 of them on the Grand Road (where the famous Rath Yatra takes place) alone.

However, the project has reportedly plagued by many operational shortcomings. The local residents as well as visitors are allegedly not getting the benefits of the scheme as most of the tap points on the Grand Road are reportedly not functioning.

“Due to poor maintenance most of the taps are not functioning on the Grand Road. The taps dispense water very slowly and the authorities have turned a deaf ear to our complaints,” said Mohan Charan Sahu, a resident of Puri.

“Some of the taps have also been covered by cabins and people are not able to use those points,” said Nityanand Manthan, another resident of Puri.

“Due to poor implementation of the scheme, visitors have no alternative but to buy water bottles and as a result plastic pollution is increasing in the city again,” Manthan added.

However Puri Collector Samarth Verma refuted the allegations.

“Some of the taps are not functioning fully and those will be repaired soon. Still as many as 120 tap points are fully functional on Grand Road,” said Verma.
 

(Edited by Ramakant Biswas)