The Odisha Government has collaborated with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) for imparting training on mapping of urban water bodies.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development along with the NIUA organised a training programme, which was inaugurated by Director Municipal Administration, Sangramjit Naik.
In his inaugural address, Naik harped on the importance of the programme for the State and the programme implementation as a structured citizen-led initiative.
He elaborated on how the collective synergy between the elected representatives, women self-help groups, municipal engineers and student interns is the key to successful implementation of the programme.
Now the Corporators/Councillors, Ward Officers, Municipal Engineers, City Mission Managers, community organisers and TULIP interns are being trained.
Special Secretary cum AMRUT Mission Director Sagarika Patnaik and Joint Secretary cum Project Director, SUDA Sarada Prasad Panda also spoke on the occasion.
They highlighted the values and technical functions of the urban wetlands and water bodies, capacity mapping, assessment of urban wetland health, root cause for their degradation and development of community led restoration strategies to restore, preserve, reclaim and rejuvenate the urban water bodies.
Over 40 officials from Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Cuttack Municipal Corporation , Parlakhemundi Municipality, Jajpur Municipality, Paradip Municipality, Athamallik NAC, Boudhgarh NAC, Chikiti NAC and Digapahandi NAC, have taken part in the training held at the State Urban Development Agency (SUDA).
Additional Secretary-cum-Chief Engineer, HUDD Bhakta Kabi Das, Senior Scientist(R), State Ground Water Development BoardAnup Das and a group of high-level experts from National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) facilitating the training.
Under this Pilot Phase the HUD Department has shortlisted 19 water bodies – 16 water bodies from Special City Water Action Plan under AMRUT 2.0 (CWAP) and three water bodies from the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. The department is committed to its vision and mission of rejuvenating all urban water bodies across the State in a systematic and sustainable manner.