Bhubaneswar, May 5: The lines ‘water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink’ from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner rings true in the capital.

While 120 million litres per day (MLD) gets wasted in Bhubaneswar, many areas still reel under acute shortage of water. In fact, the Sikharchandi Nagar near in Patia with a population of 5,000 has no drinking water at all.

Here, few families, who have their own borewells, sell water. Other families buy water from them either by paying for pots purchased or a monthly sum of Rs 300 to 400.

As per public health engineering organisation (PHEO) sources, the city needs around 150 MLD. However, the organisation supplies 270 MLD. The rest 120 MLD gets wasted. Hence, the crisis in the areas facing water scarcity is a bit ironical and could be attributed to bad planning.

“While the rest of the city is having plenty of water, we don’t get even enough to drink. A drinking water project was working since 1993 at Sikharchandi Nagar with the help of a city-based social service organisation. Later the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) took over it. But once it developed problems, apart from minor repairs, nothing was done. In 2006, Rs 28,840 was paid as power arrears for the electric pump being used from the MLA local area development fund of former minister B.B. Harichandan,” said D. Bhudevi of Samgrami Mahila Manch.

The BMC also made an attempt to launch a new drinking water project with an investment of Rs 9 lakh. It envisaged construction of a pipeline and 105 stand posts. “But the project could not progress much,’’ said Bhudevi.

Sources said an unspecified amount out of Rs 9 lakh has been utilised in the last 10 months for setting up a water supply project in the area.

“During my tenure, I was instrumental in finalising the file work, but why no progress was made is not known to anybody,” said Januma Ho, former councillor of ward No. 1.

Another Manch member, K. Laxmi, said the delay was on account of differences over the location of the pump.

He alleged that the present councillor was not making frequent visits to the locality and for that the contractor did not make adequate progress. However, present councillor Manoranjan Behera of ward No. 1 said the project was always in the limelight.

“The delay for the implementation of the drinking water project was due to the apathy of the administrative wing of the BMC,” he added.

Contractor Nilam Rout clarified there is no problem in executing the work. “Half the work has already been done and the water supply will start within 30 to 45 days,” he said.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said this being a sensitive issue related to drinking water, the Sikharchandi Nagar project would be completed soon, most probably by the end of this summer.