The Natural Disaster Management Committee expressed its concern over the speedy decline in the water level of river Rushikulya at its meeting held at the Ganjam Collectorate at Chhatrapur on Wednesday.
Such a decrease in the water level would seriously affect water supply particularly to the urban areas like Brahmapur, Gopalpur, Chhatrapur, Army College and Bhanja Bihar in the coming days, sources said. If no water from the reservoir is released to the Rushikulya, water supply from the collector well of Badamadhapur would hit normal life in the summer, the sources added.
According to reports, the State PHD (Engineering) has stressed the need of releasing water from the reservoir to the Rushikulya at least twice during the current summer as the river has dried up. However, the Irrigation Department reportedly denied such water scarcity, sources said.
At the Natural Disaster Management Committee meeting, there was a heated argument between the officials of the PHD and the Irrigation Department over the possible scarcity of water supply to the towns in the coming days.
Intervening in the discussion, Ganjam district Collector Premchandra Choudhury stressed the need of an effective coordination between the PHD and Irrigation Department and cautioned the officers of both the wings to ensure that water supply is not affected during the summer. He directed the concerned officials for supply of water through tankers and give more attention particularly to the areas in which the water scarcity created law and order problems during the last summer.