Berhampur: Piped water supply to each house amid the much hyped 24×7 water in Berhampur proved to a eyewash.With the unpreceedented rise of temperature while affected the normal life badly,scarcity of water doubled the crisis.After excution of pipe connection to each houses from water supplied through Janibili mega project,the city dwellers,has hoped for a better supply.The hope enhenced,when in 2024 former chief minister Naveen patnaik inaugurated 24×7 water supply.But no household in the city received water supply more than two hours per day,said senior advocate and BJP leader Pitabasa panda.He said some of the low lying areas in first gate area in the city received more water,as the flow continued for additonal hours.otherwise no area in the city received water as announced.he said while in the morning hour water supplied for one hour and in the evening for another one hour.Now the supply has been reduced further.He said as such after excustion of the two programmes,stand posts made defunct.As such,most of the city dwellers depend on the ponds and tube wells for their wash and bath as the water supply to the houses proved inadequate.Now the ponds in the city either dried up or filled with garbages,which has posed serious problems for the people.The scarcity likely to aggravte in coming days,he apprehended.Incidently,the city is all set to hold the biannial Budhi Thakurani yatra and the Danda nacha during which the city will have additional population.Meanwhile,WATCO has announced to reduce the water supply.Last week an emergency meeting was convened by Berhampur MLA K.Anil Kumar,wherein WATCO and BeMC officials discussed to address the water crisis.For the ensuing Thakurani Yatra,the WATCO officials has been directed to install roadside stand posts and water kiosks,besides to keep water tankers ready for emergency distribution.The WATCO officials said the city was supplied with 90 million litres per day,now only 70 million litres can be supplied to the city per day through Jagadalapur and Dakhinapur reservoirs.Bikash Padhy, general manager of Watco’s Berhampur division said that plans are underway to connect collective wells to the water supply network to address shortages.Social worker and senior advocate Jyotiprasad chotroy said the people in the city seldom protest the inadequate supply of water and taking adventage of it,the officials doing their monopoly.He said,if the version of WATCO people takeninto consideration,the city never received 24×7 water supply.Besides lack of management,water scarcity increases.He said when most of the tube wells in the city remained defunct,no steps were taken to repair them.Moreover,when the authorities are announcing to reduce the water supply,they also assures to provide the water to scarce areas through tankers.If there is no water where from the tankers be filled with water,he questioned ?
