Bhubaneswar: Notwithstanding Modi govt’s Jal Jeevan Mission in force, Odisha is staring at a major drinking water crisis this summer.
Majority of villages in the southern and western regions of the State will be facing acute drinking water crisis from March onwards.
FEB 23: livid residents of Keshara village in Mohana block were on road protesting non-availability of drinking water. This village and block falls under the Gajapati district.
The data with IMD shows Gajapati is reeling under high ground water depletion as the district has recorded a massive 80% deficient rainfall since January this year.
Moreover, under Jal Jeevan Mission, the district has tap water connections to only 61% of households. The functional tap water collections hover around 50% only.
GROUND WATER DEPLETION IN ODISHA MASSIVE
Gajapati is only a single instance. It has been cited as the protests there have spilled on to the roads.
The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) report underlines the worst case scenario prevailing in Odisha.
As per the CGWB study of water level in wells of Odisha post Monsoon 2024 presents a worrying scenario.
The data shows a high of 76% wells analysed have recorded a fall in water level vis-a-vis the average level of 2019-2023.
The report highlights that of the 75% wells registering a fall, around 66% measured fall upto 2mt, and another 9% measures fall between 2-4mt and 1.3% has recorded more than 4 mt fall.
And majority of the wells lie in the southern and western regions of the State.
HOW GROUND WATER FALL AIDS WATER SCARCITY IN JJM ERA?
As per the Jal Jeevan Mission(JJM) study, in Odisha a whopping 61% or around 32,845 villages have their water supply via an overhead tank, sump, or both. Mostly the water supplied to the overhead tanks is drawn from tubewells.
Ground water fall leads to non-availability/reduced inflow of water at the groundwater storage tanks built, and lack of rainfall for a longer period result in receding of water availability in the sumps, which in turn are leading to water scarcity at the rural household level.
HOW ACUTE WATER SCARCITY IN ODISHA?
The water scarcity in summer looks quite acute here. The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) data shows, currently, 76% rural household in Odisha have tap water connections. Still 24% rural households in the State have been out of the JJM programme.
Though on paper the tap water connections in the State stood high at 76%, around only 62% households have fully functional tap water connections within the premises.
Of the 62% households who have functional tap water connections, 16% didn’t receive adequate water supply.
1CR CRY PANI PANI SUMMER
As per the data available with Panchayti Raj and Drinking Water Department, it shows over 61 lakh rural population in the State have no access to even the minimum norm of 40 litre per day round the season, the fall in the ground water level would thus nudge as many as around 1 crore rural populace to go through an acute water scarcity this gruelling summer.
WATER STRESS DISTRICT MAP
The data shows following districts in Odisha are staring at acute water scarcity crisis in the coming summer. The whopping 32,845 villages lie mostly in the districts given below.
- Gajapati
- Mayubhanj
- Sambalpur
- Bargarh
- Nuapada
- Malkangiri
- Koraput
- Ganjam
- Nayagarh
- Puri
- Jagatsinghpur
- Jajpur
- Bhadrak
- Kendrapada
WHAT IS LACKING HERE?
- PHED in Odisha has not prepared Village Water Security Plan (VWSP)
- The objective of this plan will ensure sustainability of drinking water resources.
- Functional tap water connections are still low in Odisha vis-à-vis the headline numbers shown.
- In the above context, it seems worrying as the Drinking and Panchayati Raj department has not yet taken any stock taking meeting of water stress villages in the State this summer.
