A well in Pahala lies defunct as the high iron-content water is unfit for drinking. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, April 10: The state government has accorded administrative approval to the Public Health Engineering Organisation’s (PHEO) proposal to supply drinking water to Naharkanta, Pahala, Johala and other areas in ward No. 4 along NH-5 on the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack route.

Earlier, the PHEO had given a Rs 30-crore proposal to supply piped water to this area, along with a water treatment plant. However, citing paucity of funds, the government has scaled it down and asked it to supply water to the area by digging underground wells.

The project will have nine underground pumping stations and as many reservoirs. Later, the project will be scaled up to include, among other things, a treatment plant.

At present, residents of Pahala and Johala and the nearby areas face acute shortage of potable water. Water in the wells of this area has a high iron content and the water table dips to very low levels in summer.

PHEO superintending engineer Chitta Ranjan Jena said: “At present, around 22,000 people stay in the area and the water supply project with the treatment plant would be able to cater to 60,000 people. So, at present, a system with groundwater pumping will work. Later, pumping from the Kuakhai river will be effected and the area can have water from there. Once the river-based station starts functioning, the underground pumping system can work as a standby unit.”

Executive engineer of PHEO (division-II) Manoj Ranjan Nanda said: “The nine pumping stations and reservoirs will cost around Rs 7.5 crore. The state government has made a provision of Rs 3.52 crore for that in two phases and we have already begun the ground work. We have written to the general administration department to provide us land at nine places and their senior officials have already visited the spot. So, we need a clearance on the land to start our work.”

The Telegraph had highlighted water woes of the Pahala region on March 11, 2011 (Pahala cries for water) and February 28 (Realty boom, water bust).

Speaking on the high iron content in groundwater, PHEO engineers said that if the problem was noticed at any of the nine stations, adequate filtering stations would be recommended.

Kailash Chandra Behera, a resident of Pahala, said: “At present, only a portion of Naharkanta is getting piped water supply. But in Pahala and Johala, water in more than 95 per cent wells or tubewells has a lot of iron content. We hope that PHEO will be able to solve this problem.”