Bhubaneswar, March 17: Water woes could well be a thing of the past in the capital if plans of the public health engineering organisation (PHEO) have a free flow.

The PHEO, which works under the housing and urban development department, is taking a number of steps to ensure that citizens of the capital do not have to face water scarcity during the summer months.

The steps would range from repair of electrical equipment for water supply, providing more water tankers and getting excavators ready for digging up the bed of Kuakhai river to meet emergencies.

The department also plans to set up a control room to readdress the complaints of the people.

The control room would function with assistant engineers from different PHEO divisions monitoring it.

A senior PHEO engineer said a meeting chaired by the chief engineer decided that 15 to 20 water tankers of private operators would be kept ready. The department on its part would contribute at least 30 tankers to meet the needs of the people in the three PHEO divisions of the capital city, he added.

The junior engineers have been asked to carryout repairs of water pumps, besides checking electrical equipment. The officials were also asked to take care of the leakages in the pipelines and take corrective measures immediately.

“As water becomes scarce during the summer months, its conservation also needs special attention. We just can’t afford to waste water,’’ said a senior PHEO official.

Sources said that city’s biggest pumping station at the Kuakhai river on the outskirts of the city often faces depletion of water during summer.

To avoid such a situation, the authorities would keep excavators handy to dig up the riverbed.

“There are 15 pumps on Kuakhai bank. Of these, nine pumps run simultaneously in different permutations and combinations to ensure continuous water supply,’’ said executive engineer of public health (division I) Manoj Ranjan Nanda.

“As the water comes from Kuakhai to the treatment plant at Palasuni, the installations — both mechanical and electrical — are also being checked as part of summer preparedness,” he said.

“Apart from this, there are 175 pumping stations drawing water from bore wells across the city. As the water level goes down in summer, many of these stations may need new suction pipes,” he added.

The executive engineer, PHEO Div I, Chittaranjan Mohanty, said a toll-free number (18003456783) would be provided to the people throughout the state to register complaint regarding water availability, distribution and related things.

Mohanty said that water supply related complaints from the city would also be recorded through this toll-free number.

“For areas not coming under the PHEO pipe-water network, public stand posts are being planned with an estimated investment of Rs 1.5 lakh by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. The PHEO engineers would execute the work to help the urban poor living in slums. The PHEO is also carrying out such work from the funds available from MLA-local area development (MLA-LAD),’’ added Mohanty.

“The entire city has got 2,966 tube wells as of now. Four more tubewells will be provided to the people soon. We are taking special care of people who had so far remained uncovered by water supply,” said executive engineer of public health (division III) Dwaipayan Pattnaik.

In many areas, tubewells need one extra pipe to draw water because of the depleting water table level. Hence, a proposal has been submitted to the government in this regard.

“Work will start within a week or so,” Pattnaik added.