In the tribal-dominated Sundargarh district, 24 per cent of the villages are getting pipe water facility whereas the remaining 76 per cent of the villages have to depend upon tube wells and other crude water sources for water.
The tube wells collapsing in mining areas again being a common feature here in Sundargarh district, the residents of rural areas languish for drinking water.
Sources said out of total 1,691 villages in Sundargarh district, only 442 villages have pipe water facility. In these villages, out of total number of 2, 78,862 families, only 33,038 families are getting pipe water facility as a result of which a whopping 2, 45,824 families have been eluded from the facility.
Without having the pipe water facility, the residents either use rivers, canals and tube wells as their water source, for their day daily consumption. Unlike other districts, Sundargarh district have two division of Rural Water and Sanitation Service (RWSS), the one at Rorukela and the other is at Sundargarh. With two divisions working with two executive engineers as heads, the work under these two division is although expected to progress fast, but the figure available with both the divisions has nothing to be encouraged. In Sundargarh division, out of 743 villages, only 253 villages have got pipe water connection and the same has not reached in as many as 493 villages. In respect of families of these villages, out of 1,56, 552 families, only 5,374 families have got the pipe water connection, where as remaining 1,51,178 villages have been left dry. As per this statistics, only 34 per cent of the villages have got pipe water connection, where as only 3.43 per cent families have been getting this pipe water facility.
Again in Rourkela RWSS division, out of 944 villages, only 189 villages have got pipe water connection and the remaining villages have been left dry. In respect of families of these villages, out of 1,22,310 families, only 27,664 families have been getting the pipe water facility, where as 94,644 families have been still depending upon traditional sources, As per this statistics, about 20.02 per cent villages have been covered under pipe water project where as only 22.61per cent families have got pipe water connection.
The officials of RWSS claim, lack of surface source and usual practice of collapsing of deep bore wells have been a major challenge for providing pipe water projects in Sundargarh district.
"The location of the villages being far off from the surface water sources, it has been a major challenge, since we need to cover them from a long distance of original water source," said Executive Engineer, Sundargarh RWSS Division RK Nayak.
"However, we are focusing on multi village schemes for covering more number of villages through single project in 2018-19, which will help us in increasing our statistics of pipe water connection in the district," Nayak said.
"Since, Sundargarh district administration has already given clearance to utilise the funds from the District Mineral Foundation in pipe water projects, funds are not going to be a problem for Sundargarh and therefore more number of villages are going to get the pipe water connection in coming years," Nayak added.