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SUJAL – DRINK FROM TAP MISSION

The ‘Drink from tap mission’ initiative was undertaken by the Government of Odisha and launched on the 13th of October in 2020. This initiative aims to improve the quality of drinking water without requiring further filtration. The Government of Odisha plans to cover 15 urban cities under this project and directly benefit the 15 lakh population. Under this scheme, the state government intends to cover all households in metropolitan areas with piped water by march 2022. 

Initially, The Government of Odisha launched this project in Bhubaneswar and puri cities. In the first phase, safe and clean drinking water is supplied in 12 areas of Bhubaneswar and Puri and covers 1.8 lakh people. Nine wards in Bhubaneswar have 19,000 households with a population of 1.14 lakh, and two wards in Puri have 3,785 homes with a population of 70,000 will be a part of the project in this phase. In Puri, 36 million litres per day of filtered drinking water are required. 

The significant benefit of this scheme is that the expenditure has been reduced for the marginalised people from urban areas for accessing safe and clean drinking water. The second benefit is that the mission will attract more tourists to pilgrim areas like Puri. Drinking water fountains installed in 400 pilgrim places ensured that visitors do not carry plastic bottles, eliminated three crore plastic bottles, and reduced 400 metric tonnes of plastic in puri every year. Odisha has become “the first state in the country to provide quality drinking water, fit for direct consumption, in urban areas.”

To ensure public health and clean water access, the government increased its budget from 200 crores to 4000 crores in the last five years. These kinds of investments improve the city’s infrastructure and people’s lives.

The role of “JalaSathi” aims to ensure the supply of safe drinking water to all households in the state. The Odisha government has roped in women volunteers to serve the people as ‘Jalasathis’. This is a significant step, as it will contribute to women’s economic empowerment in the state. The initiative will engage 5,000 women in Odisha to supply safe drinking water. The Jalasathis will link consumers and the Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) or WATCO. They will be responsible for testing water quality, facilitating new water connections and regularising connections, reassessing demands, reading the meter, generating bills and their delivery, collecting water charges, and facilitating complaints redressal.

The district manager has installed an online quality analyser at the Mangla ghat water treatment plant to ensure water purity and quality. The online analyser tests the water quality before being stored and supplied to the people. The device raises the alarm if any technical glitch occurs during the water quality check. Ensuring a 24*7 safe water supply will be ensured only through the proper maintenance of pipelines. 

In December, a Conference plus Exhibition was held by the Ministry of Home and Urban Affairs in New Delhi to promote 24*7 water supply all over India. At that conference, A case study of the 24*7 water supply in Puri city “Drink from Tap mission” was presented. Chief Engineers, technology experts, and stakeholders of the initiative have shared their thoughts in this discussion.

We got an opportunity to participate and exhibit our products at this event. 


Warm regards,
Marketing team
Solinas Integrity