Bhubaneswar, Aug. 22: The municipal corporation has kept its promise to install water ATMs in the city along with issuing smart cards to the people for its use. However, insufficient knowledge about the use of these devices has left them mostly unused.
"I came across the water ATM at Bhyom Nagar and tried to use it, but I couldn't operate it. Someone said I needed a smart card to work it. But then I have no idea where to get the card," said Akash Narayan, a school student here.
The civic body had started the process to install the machines, popularly known as water ATMs, during the Local Self-Government Day last year. Accordingly, on August 30, the city got the first machine at Jharna Sahi and two others at Pokhariput and Patrapada in the next two days.
The plan was to install 40 water ATMs across the city and start three water treatment plants to supply purified water to these machines. Sources said the civic body had so far installed 39 machines at various locations of the city and three water treatment plants are functional.
Sources in the corporation said so far they had issued around 900 smart cards to the citizens. A senior civic body official admitted that the frequency of issuing the card was not picking up due to lack of awareness among the people.
He said: "The card has the details on how to use these machines, but there is need to conduct awareness drives."
The inconvenient location of some of the machines also is reason for poor use.
"I found a water ATM located at a very inconvenient position in Rasulgarh. You wouldn't even notice it unless you knew it was there. If the civic body wants us to use these machines, they should install these at places where it easy to find them," said Vimal Jena, the owner of a shop at Rasulgarh Square.
Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said they had fulfilled the promise to introduce the water ATMs on time to the people.
He said: "Earlier, we had made it a paid service. Later, we decided to make it free to increase the use of the machines. But we think that we will need to conduct drives to educate citizens about it."
The civic body had mooted the project in 2014, but due to administrative glitches, the project got delayed by two years.
Last year in July, the corporation had inked a deal with a private partner to execute the project and finally began installing the devices in August last year. The project has been executed at a cost of Rs 4.93 crore.
"We have done the job of installing the machines. We are now operating as well as maintaining the machines. It is true that the people are still not so aware of how to use the machines. The civic body should educate the people on its use," said a spokesperson of the civic body's private partner in the project.
