Odisha government rolls out 'drink from tap' project in Puri, claims first in country

BHUBANESWAR: Puri has earned a unique distinction of becoming the first Indian city to get piped drinking water of good quality round the clock, said the state government on Monday. Launching the ambitious project under the banner of ‘Sujal - drink from tap mission’ through virtual platform, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said Puri has now joined the league of international cities like London, New York and Singapore in supplying quality piped drinking water from tap 24/7.
"The launch of 'Sujal: drink from tap mission' in Puri is a new chapter in Odisha’s development. It makes the heritage city first in India to achieve this milestone, matching the standards of supply of drinking water in many foreign cities. Around 2.5 lakh people of Puri town and two crore tourists visiting the city every year can now get quality drinking water from tap without the need of storing and filtering water,” Naveen said in his address from the virtual platform.
Drinking water fountains have been set up at 400 locations in Puri to ensure that the visitors do not carry plastic bottles. The government hopes that the Sujal piped water scheme will eliminate the usage of 3 crore plastic bottles, preventing 400 metric tonnes of plastic waste every year in Puri.
Naveen said Sujal, which is a transformative project under the government’s 5T charter, has been commissioned only in nine months. The project will subsequently be extended to 16 other urban localities with 40 lakh population in the state.
Naveen said quality drinking water is closely linked with good health, human development index and economy. In order to ensure that the people of the state get quality drinking water, the Odisha government has increased its budget from Rs 200 crore to Rs 4,000 crore in the last five years.
The government said the initiative has been launched under ‘Jalsathi’ programme by partnering with women self-help groups (SHGs) of Mission Shakti. The quality surveillance of the drinking water supply will be conducted by the ‘Jalsathis’ from the women SHGs.
Union ministry of housing and urban affair’s secretary Durga Shanker Mishra, who attended the launch of Sujal piped water project, appreciated the Odisha government for achieving the milestone and said it would work as a role model for other states.
Chief secretary Suresh Mohapatra, 5T secretary V K Pandian, state housing and urban development secretary G Mathi Vathanan and minister Pratap Jena among other dignitaries attended the project’s launch.