CMC faces heat over lack of drinking water kiosks

CUTTACK: The failure of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) to set up adequate temporary drinking water kiosks in the Millennium City has drawn the ire of citizens who are reeling under intense heat wave conditions.Every year, the CMC sets up ‘Jala Chhatra’ or water kiosks across the city to tackle heat wave situation and provide relief to citizens during summer. This year, the civic body had announced to set up drinking water kiosks by April 15 with the help of different banks operating in the city. It had also decided to repair and restore defunct drinking water cooler machines across the City. Accordingly, letters were issued to banks with identification of 35 prominent spots besides all the 59 Wards for setting up drinking water kiosks on a priority basis. However, hardly 15 to 20 kiosks are operating in the city currently.

Similarly, out of 61 water cooler machines installed in various parts of the city to provide cold drinking water to passersby, around 28 are lying defunct. The places where machines have become defunct include the busy Badambadi Bus Stand, Purighat, Nimachaudi and Choudhury Bazar.Sources said CMC spends between `10 lakh and 12 lakh to set up the kiosks every summer. However this year, the civic body has not been able to execute the programme efficiently.

Prasant Rout, a resident of Badambadi, said, “The water coolers provided us relief from the scorching heat during summer. Now, the defunct machines are delivering hot water making it undrinkable.”

“The Corporation has failed to make drinking water provisions at various locations in the city. The existing few drinking water kiosks set up in the city are running dry and often left unmanned,” said another resident Sirish Kumar Mahapatra. It is essential to ensure that people do not face problems during the peak summer season, he added.

Though CMC Commissioner Sarat Nayak was not available for comment, senior officials of the civic body attributed the delay in setting up drinking water kiosks to extremely severe cyclone Fani which had left a trail of devastation in the city.