Odisha to set up Water Academy

BHUBANESWAR: The State government has decided to set up Odisha Water Academy to enhance the quality of service in the water and waste water sector and ensure better health and environment outcome. The academy, to be set up as a Centre of Excellence, will function as the pioneering training and capacity building institution in the field of water and waste water service provision.  

Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) Minister Pratap Jena, in a release, said safe drinking water and waste water service provision to each urban household in the State is a priority of the government. “The academy will be beneficial to the personnel working under the Water Corporation of Odisha (WATCO), Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO), Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage Board (OWSSB) and other related organisations supporting the sector and services for their capacity development,” Jena said. 

The training and capacity building to be undertaken by the academy will be for both managers and workers. It will enable them to remain up-to-date with state-of-the-art, innovative, hi-tech technologies and advanced management skills to run the water and waste water business in the State more efficiently than before, the Minister said.  

The academy will be registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and would work under the administrative control of WATCO. It would be managed under its own Memorandum of Association and Rules and Regulations with a governing body headed by the H&UD secretary-cum-chairman WATCO.