‘Water theft’ becomes a major problem in Sambalpur that leads to an artificial water scarcity due to the rampant illegal pipe connection. One can imagine the volume of water theft from the fact that Sambalpur city with a population of over 2 lakhs, only 8000 house holds have taken legal water connection. The public health department failed in checking the growing illegal connection because of the involvement of departmental staff in this racket. Top officials of the department however expressed helplessness as they do not have sufficient power to book these offenders“It is difficult on our part to calculate the exact demand of the water because of the illegal connection. Sambalpur city has a population of above 2 lakhs but only 8000 house holds have legal connection. We are unable to check illegal connection because of legal complication. Unless government empowers us to book the offenders, the problem of water theft is difficult to check,” the executive engineer of PHD (Sambalpur) Mr. Dilip Pradhan told.
Sources said, the water supply was made to the people of Sambalpur from the river Mahanadi as there was no provision for water supply directly from the Hirakud reservoir but thanks to the former chief minister Biju Patnaik under whose able leadership the grater water supply project for Sambalpur was formulated during early 90s, but to complete the project it took another a long 7 years. “We have covered major areas of the town under the new project but still there are few uncovered areas where water supply is made through the old system. We are hopeful to cover all most all areas under the new projects with in couple of years”, Executive engineer PHD, Pradhan told.
Sources said, there are few newly developed areas including Kuluthkani, Anguliapara, Durgapali and Sarlakani where people are yet to get the benefit of water supply. In these areas ground water has become the primary water sources. “We have not able to connect the areas with water pipes because of shortage funds. A proposal is pending with the government and we are hopeful to get it sanctioned very soon”, Mr. Pradhan informed.
However he informed that the department sustains huge loss of revenue because of the water theft through illegal connection. “We do not get adequate fund for maintenance of the project because of the poor revenue collection.”, Mr. Pradhan told.
On the other hand wastage of water becomes another headache for the PHD department because of the illegal connection. “It has been estimated that about 30% to 40% of the water that is supplied every day becomes useless because of the lack of civic sense of the people”, Mr. Pradhan told.
Sources said, the water supply was made to the people of Sambalpur from the river Mahanadi as there was no provision for water supply directly from the Hirakud reservoir but thanks to the former chief minister Biju Patnaik under whose able leadership the grater water supply project for Sambalpur was formulated during early 90s, but to complete the project it took another a long 7 years. “We have covered major areas of the town under the new project but still there are few uncovered areas where water supply is made through the old system. We are hopeful to cover all most all areas under the new projects with in couple of years”, Executive engineer PHD, Pradhan told.
Sources said, there are few newly developed areas including Kuluthkani, Anguliapara, Durgapali and Sarlakani where people are yet to get the benefit of water supply. In these areas ground water has become the primary water sources. “We have not able to connect the areas with water pipes because of shortage funds. A proposal is pending with the government and we are hopeful to get it sanctioned very soon”, Mr. Pradhan informed.
However he informed that the department sustains huge loss of revenue because of the water theft through illegal connection. “We do not get adequate fund for maintenance of the project because of the poor revenue collection.”, Mr. Pradhan told.
On the other hand wastage of water becomes another headache for the PHD department because of the illegal connection. “It has been estimated that about 30% to 40% of the water that is supplied every day becomes useless because of the lack of civic sense of the people”, Mr. Pradhan told.
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