Supply of drinking water has remained a big problem in Jharsuguda town. The town’s population has touched 1.16 lakh with a total of 27 wards, out of which only eight wards, No 3, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23 and 24, are being provided with drinking water by the Public Health and Engineering (PHE) Department.
The town is having a total of 220 water stand-posts. Out of 25,000 families residing in the town, only 1,971 households have been provided with water pipe connections by the Government. The city's daily requirement of 90 lakh litre cannot be fulfilled by the district administration and the residents are to be satisfied with only 45 lakh litre at present, said official sources.
After being pumped from Ib river and getting purified at the purification plant at Panchapada, the water is supplied to the town through overhead tanks of Pahadi temple. Besides, water is also supplied to the town through two overhead tanks near OSAP and Engineering School locality.
While department sources assert supply of pure drinking water from the filtration plant built in 1981 near Panchpada, the residents question about the quality of water supplied directly in conventional method applying alum and lime. Having capacity of 45 lakh litre, this 37 year-old filtration plant is still used presently. Many residents are still dependent upon well, tube-well for failure of PH Department to supply pure drinking water. During the scorching summer, the residents are facing hardships to fetch drinking water. While partial water supply is made to 10 wards of the city like No 1,4,5,6,7,10,11,13,14 and 22, rest wards are deprived from water supply.
Further, the problem is getting aggravated due to water theft in those areas getting water supply. At various places, some unscrupulous elements are pilfering water by cutting the pipelines illegally. Besides, the piped water consumers are not depositing water tax every month creating another headache for the PHE Department.