A mega drinking water supply project in Odisha's Jajpur district, covering 280 villages, remains incomplete despite being scheduled for completion in December 2023. The Rs 418.87-crore project, which aims to provide 57 million litres of water per day to 3.25 lakh people in Jajpur and Binjharpur blocks, is only 80% finished, leaving villagers without adequate drinking water during peak summer.
Project timeline and delays
The state government floated the tender in 2021 and awarded the work to a construction company. The company promised to complete the project by December 2023, but the deadline has been missed. According to Satyabrat Panigrahi, superintending engineer of the rural water supply and sanitation department (Jajpur), 80% of the work has been completed, including laying pipelines and building water tanks in many panchayats. He stated that the project will be completed within this year.
Villagers' plight
The delay has caused severe hardship for residents. Kanhu Charana Tarai, sarpanch of Basudevpur panchayat, said, "With each passing day, drinking water scarcity is becoming more acute. We have asked the authorities many times to speed up work but they did not pay any heed to our pleas." Villagers like Swadhin Jena of Jamadhar village expressed their desire for quick completion, while Ranjan Behera of the same village noted that many are dependent on a few tubewells and wells for water.
Dependence on century-old well
In Ransol village, around 25 families have fitted motor pumps in a century-old deep well to lift water. Nihar Ranjan Jena (76) of Ransol village said, "The well in our village is our lifeline. Every day we collect water from there. We need more deep wells." The situation highlights the urgent need for the project's completion to provide reliable water supply to the region.
