Even though the Government had sanctioned Rs 31 crore for establishment of a water supply project at Bargarh in 2009, a whopping 70,000 population are still to get piped water due to the tardy progress in the said project work.
Households in eight of 19 wards of the Bargarh Municipality are not getting adequate drinking water from the PHD since the project has not been completed yet.
While water requirement of the municipality is 10 MlD, only 4 MlD water is being supplied to 11 wards now. Resultantly, some families depend on Zira river for drinking water and, thus, are suffering from epidemic diseases.
While more than 22 ponds have dried up in Bargarh town, authorities have also not taken any step to renovate them. Now some of the ponds have become playgrounds for the youths.
If the ponds are renovated and cleaned, they would resolve water scarcity to a big extent, said many.