Odisha: Nuapada tap water coverage highest at 78 per cent, Malkangiri lowest 21 per cent

BHUBANESWAR: The State government has provided tap water to nearly 7.15 lakh households in the last four months, increasing the coverage to 38.64 per cent from 30.3 per cent in July. The State has targeted to provide tap water connection to 21.31 lakh households in the current financial year. Of a total 85.66 lakh households in the State, now over 33.10 lakh households have tap water supply.

Setting a target to provide tap water connection to all the households by 2024, the State has planned to provide 22.53 lakh tap water connections in the year 2022-23 and another 18.87 lakh connections in 2023-24. The Centre has increased the budgetary support to the State by four-fold with allocation of Rs 3,323.42 crore in July. With unspent balance of Rs 10.93 crore and matching State share of Rs 3,253 crore, the government has funds availability of Rs 6,596 crore for safe drinking water supply work in Odisha in 2021-22. Nuapada district topped the list with a coverage of 78.73 per cent households. Of the 1,41,389 households, as many as 1,11,320 households have tap water connections. The household coverage of Bhadrak is 62.95 per cent followed by Keonjhar with 56.6 per cent and Angul with 5 2.92 per cent.

Ten districts have a coverage of 40 to 50 per cent while seven districts have 30 to 40 per cent coverage.
Malkangiri is at the bottom of the list with a coverage of 21.42 per cent. The district has a total of 1,23,909 households  but only 26,543 houses have tap water connection.The mineral-rich and industrial district of Sundargarh has only 22.88 per cent household coverage while Rayagada has a coverage of 23.66 per cent.The tap water connection in Cuttack district is less than the coverage in Koraput.

The tribal dominated Koraput district has a coverage of 33.74 per cent as against 33,36 per cent in Cuttack district. Under Jal Jeevan Mission, priority is given to water-scarce areas, quality-affected villages, aspirational districts, villages having majority population from scheduled categories and Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojna (SAGY) villages. 

Safe Water Project
Govt Funds Available Rs 6,596 crore
State Share Rs 3,253 crore
Unspent Balance Rs 10.93
10 districts have a coverage of 40 to 50 per cent; 7 districts have 30 to 40 per cent coverage