Urban Odisha Drinking ‘Not So Safe’ Water, CAG Reveals Gaps In Testing Infrastructure

Bhubaneswar: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, placed in the Odisha Assembly, has revealed gaps in water quality management in urban areas.

It has found serious shortcomings in testing infrastructure even after six years of framing of Odisha State Urban Water Supply Policy 2013 (OSUWSP). “Provisioning of 100 per cent (pc) safe drinking water by 2016-17 as envisaged in the policy remained unfulfilled due to non-creation of infrastructure, human resources and negligence of officials,” it said.

While pointing at gaps in the monitoring protocol, the report said that only 19 per cent laboratories (22 of the required 115) have been set up and there was no plan in place to bridge the shortfall, in a time-bound manner.

It further said that 62 of 114 ULBs were sourcing water from surface sources (river and lake), requiring water treatment plants (WTPs) for purification. Though a basic water testing laboratory (WTL) is required for each WTP, 81 WTPs did not have any WTL to ensure the quality of drinking water supplied. There were 93 WTPs in the 62 ULBs.

The audit test checked records of water testing at 14 WTPs in Puri, Koraput, Rayagada and Balangir. Among these, three WTPs at Sunabeda, Koraput and Jeypore divisions had WTLs while 11 did not have any WTL.

Only the lab at Sunabeda conducted all the 12 prescribed tests.

The CAG said that inadequate WTLs affected the overall outcome of providing quality drinking water in urban areas. It further said that none of the WTLs had obtained accreditation from the National Accreditation Board and the International Organisation for Standardisation.

In Rayagada, Balangir and Puri, the turbidity of clear water was found to be way higher than the acceptable limit of one NTU as per BIS. A significant number of hand pump tube wells were not tested and only 10 out of 19 divisions were covered in testing, it added.

Besides, several districts were not supplied with chemicals, reagents and kits during 2016-19.

The CAG also found nine labs (one at Bhubaneswar and eight in PH divisions) set up by Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) in collaboration with Spectro Analytical Lab Limited (SAL) at the cost of around Rs 18 crore were not conducting four important tests of disinfection by-product (DBP), anionic detergent, chloramine and mineral oil.