Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government Tuesday decided to set up a ‘Water Academy’ in the state capital here. The academy will function as a pioneering training and capacity building institution in the field of water and wastewater service provision.
The main objective of the academy will be to enhance the quality and service levels in the sector for customer satisfaction and for better health and environment outcomes, said Urban Development minister Pratap Jena.
The minister said enabling 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 to be undertaken by the academy will be 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.
The academy would be registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and would work under the administrative control of WATCO, he said.
It would be managed under its own Memorandum of Association and rules and 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, the minister said.