Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Friday said that State government always focused on wellbeing of all its citizen and accords top priority for providing safe and clean tap water to all the Households in all cities in the State in a time bound manner.
Speaking at the launch of the AMRUT 2.0 and Swachha Bharat Mission (SBM), he said it is also striving hard to achieve garbage free clean cities.
He said the State implemented the AMRUT Mission launched in 2015 by Union Government.
“This has brought substantial improvements in the urban water supply sector and septage management across 9 major towns of Odisha. Water supply and Septage Projects with an investment of about Rs1,600 Crore have been implemented,” he said.
Patnaik said with the successful implementation of the Projects and Urban Reform measures under AMRUT, Odisha has been securing the first position in the country consecutively for the last 3 years.
The Chief Minister said that to ensure tap water supply to all households in all the 114 cities over and above AMRUT Mission coverage, the State Government has come up with its own intiative BASUDHA .
“I am glad to share that so far 27 cities out of 114 cities achieved 100 percent House connections including Bhubaneswar City which has become the first and only Million Plus City so far to achieve this status,” he said.
Patnaik said the State government has targeted to achieve 100 per cent house connections in all our cities by December 2022.
“In this ambitious journey , Jal sathis who are the Mission Sakthi members, are our community partners in managing the water supply distribution and consumer relationship,” he said.
Taking provision of drinking water to next level, Odisha has started its Drink from Tap mission under its 5T intiative.
Under this Mission 24×7 water supply of Directly drinkable from tap, meeting IS 10500 quality standards is being provided to all households of Jagannatha Dham Puri, he said.
Puri city has become the first city in the country to achieve this unique distinction of joining the league of international cities like London, Newyork, Singapore & Tokyo, he said adding, this will reduce 400 tons of plastic waste annually in pilgrim city of Puri.
“This transformative intiative is being expanded to 17 more Cities including Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur and Rourkela,” he announced.
Under the fecal sludge management, nine cities were supported under AMRUT Mission including Puri city where co-treatment facility converging Sewage and Septage treatment process has been set up which is unique and has been acknowledged as a national best practice, he said.
“The FSM programme is extended to all the cities in the state apart from the AMRUT cities and I am happy to share that presently 55 Treatment facilities are functioning and are fully managed by our Mission Sakthi Women Self Help Groups,” the Chief Minister said.
Partnering with women self help groups have given a quality filip in addition to providing huge livelihood options for women in these urban areas.
“We have kept an ambitious target to achieve 100 percent fecal sludge facilities in all 114 cities by March 2022,” he said.
He assured the Centre that Odisha will partner with the central government in successful implementation of these flagship missions and work towards improving the livability standards for our urban population.
He complimented the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving him the opportunity to share State’s experiences.
