Water crisis hits oil market terminals

PARADIP: Acute scarcity of water at three oil marketing terminals in Atharbanki here has made life miserable for truck drivers and workers.Hundreds of tankers load and unload petrol and diesel from the terminals of the three oil companies Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan petroleum and transport it to different petrol pumps across the State everyday. Besides, numerous workers have been engaged at the facilities for laying pipelines and construction of bottling plants.

Earlier, water to the terminals was supplied by Paradip Port Trust (PPT). However, on Water Resources department’s directions, it stopped supplying water to the terminals last year. The terminal authorities had sought the intervention of the district administration and the department authorities to resolve the issue but in vain.

Assistant Director of Directorate of Factories and Boilers Chandrakant Dalai said after PPT stopped supplying water to the terminals, HPCL has been using its local reservoir while IOCL and BPCL are using water tankers to meet their needs. He said the water, which is stored in containers, lasts only for four hours.
Dalai said thousands of tankers transport fuel from these terminals to different petrol pumps of the State. Besides, there is an LPG terminal and an oil and gas hub near the terminals. There is always a risk of fire mishap at the facilities and water scarcity can make matters worse in such eventualities, he said.

A senior official of Water Resources department said that PPT had been procuring water from the department at  20 paise for 1,000 litre. Later, it was found that PPT was supplying water to other companies at a higher rate. As per its agreement with the Water Resources department, PPT should receive three million gallon litres of drinking water daily. However, it procured six million gallon litres, he said.
Later, the department directed all oil marketing companies to avail water directly from it and also asked PPT authorities to stop supplying water to other firms, the official said.

Executive Engineer of Mahanadi South Division, Cuttack, Basant Rout said he has received applications from authorities of the three terminals to supply drinking water from Mahanadi river. Steps are being taken to supply water to these terminals as early as possible, he added.