Bhubaneswar, April 13: The outbreak of jaundice had alarmed the state government but very few residents living in apartments thought of taking the notice regarding submission of water quality report seriously.
On January 22, the housing and urban development department issued the notice for submission of water quality report to those living in apartments and its owners at Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) by January 31.
Based on these individual findings, the PHEO was asked to submit the final report by March 31.
However, the response to the government notice has been lukewarm.
Sources said while there were more than 500 apartments within corporation limits, only less than 40 reports were submitted so far.
Most owners of apartments are yet to form a residents welfare associations. The senior engineer said in many instances while the building plan approval was issued to plot owner, the residents' names were not anywhere in the documents, causing confusion while the notices were delivered.
PHEO superintending engineer Chittaranjan Jena told The Telegraph: "We are yet to compile all the data from our 54 sections under our three divisions across the city. The notices were issued by the junior engineers or assistant engineers in-charge of the sections concerned. In many cases, our officials could not find the address of the person to whom the letter was addressed."
The state government had issued the notice following the outbreak of jaundice in many urban areas across Odisha. "The PHEO is yet to supply pipe-water to many colonies. So house and apartment owners are using bore wells to get water for their daily use. Hence there is a need to test the quality at regular intervals," said Mintu Tripathy, a resident of Soubhagya Nagar.
A PHEO assistant engineer, who did not wish to be named, said: "The notice issued by the state government is impossible to be executed. There are three government-run laboratories i.e. Palasuni, Ram Mandir Square and State Pollution Control Board as mentioned in the notice, but for more than 500 apartments the time limit was too short."
He, however, said the water quality reports from the laboratory such as the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology would also be considered as it was run by the central government.
The PHEO engineer also said the residents would have to submit report every three months as every season water quality changes as per the ground water table in the area.
Krushna Kumar Sethi, a resident and former councillor of Sundarpada, said: "Water table is going down in Sundarpada and nearby areas following a large scale real-estate development causing concern mainly during the summer months. The municipal corporation and development authority should implement the rain water harvesting legislation as mandatory provisions in building plan approval process."
Apart from asking PHEO to collect water quality reports from the apartments, the state government had also asked the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation to form ward kalyan samitis to monitor water quality for public use. However, sources alleged that the civic body is yet to call these meetings in all wards by March 31.
"We have organised meetings in many wards. However, in areas where officials couldn't spare time, we failed to hold meetings," said additional public relations officer of the municipal corporation Gopal Panigrahi.
