Over Rs700 crore will be spent for developing drinking water infrastructure both in rural and urban areas of the State, said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here on Tuesday.
Reviewing the drinking water situation in the State at a meeting in the Secretariat, Patnaik said drinking water projects will be accorded top priority and funds will be utilised for the purpose from the 4th State Finance Commission and 14th Central Finance Commission.
“The previous Finance Commissions’ funds will be completely utilised for implementation of drinking water projects in the State,” Patnaik said.
While a total of 4,32,309 spot water sources and 9,533 piped drinking water projects are completely functional in rural areas, 33,191 tube wells and all the piped water projects are working in urban areas of the State, said official sources.
The authorities have deployed 1,100 water tankers and over 700 mobile vans for repairing tube wells in rural areas. Similarly, 595 tankers, 1,279 Sintex tanks have been engaged and 58 new tube wells have been installed in urban areas. Work is underway to dig as many as 27,000 tube wells in villages, which are facing water scarcity.
Records suggest a total of 1,370 tube wells have been installed so far in the villages. Reviewing the drinking water supply programme in the meeting, Patnaik suggested the officials to encourage the public for rainwater harvesting as part of long term initiative.
Rural Development Minister Badri Narayan Patra, Panchayati Raj Minister Arun Sahoo, Housing and Urban Development Minister Pushpendra Singhdeo and Higher Education Minister Pradip Panigrahi were among others present during the meeting.