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Bhubaneswar: Odisha is seemingly thirsty for water! A whopping 25 lakh rural households and a high of 1.85 lakh urban households fail to get even sufficient drinking water throughout the year.
The findings of the recently released National Sample Survey (NSS) report on Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Conditions in India prick the water bubble of Odisha government, especially when it claims of providing 40 litres per capita per day to a massive 98 per cent rural habitations in the State.
As per the report, nearly 3 in every 10 rural households and 1 in every 10 urban households don't get sufficient drinking water throughout the year. It says 29.8 per cent rural households in Odisha don't get adequate drinking water for the whole year. And the proportion for the urban region in the State stood at 10 per cent, the report observed.
The big thumbs down for Odisha is in the proportion of drinking water deprivation lot in rural areas, the State is ranked at 3rd from the bottom. Only a hilly state like Himachal Pradesh and a UT like Dadra & Nagar Haveli are worse than Odisha.
More telling comment on the State's water administration is, when overall (rural + urban) piped water access is available to 11.4 per cent or a mere 11.85 lakh households in Odisha, nearly half of the such households fail to avail enough drinking water for the whole year.
The report finds hand pumps as the principal drinking water source in Odisha.
While nearly 64 per cent rural households depend on hand pump as their main drinking water source in the State, its 56 per cent households in urban region.
As nearly 19 per cent rural households in the State have to walk up to 1 km to fetch drinking water daily, Odisha ranked at 4th from the bottom. Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh are only ranked higher.
Overall (rural + urban), nearly 17 per cent of households in Odisha have to walk upto 1 km daily to meet their drinking water needs, which is 3nd poorest after Andhra Pradesh and Meghalaya in the country.
Another major finding of NSS report is 83 per cent rural households in Odisha didn't go for any kind of water treatment, which is 5th poorest after Bihar, Haryana, UP and West Bengal. And with 57 per cent urban households not undertaking any water treatment, Odisha fared 7th poorest in the country.
