Villagers draw drinking water from a tube well in Nuapada. Telegraph picture

Nuapada, June 9: An ambitious project begun by the rural water supply and sanitation department in 2012 to provide fluoride-free potable water is yet to be completed. Consequently, people in the district continue to depend on groundwater with high fluoride content.

An official said: “The work is going on and will be completed soon.”

Official sources said the worst-affected block was Boden (Karlapat and Sukalpur areas) where flouride content in water was more than 1.5 mg/litre. Here, almost all tube wells pump water with high fluoride. The situation at Palsipani and Dhumabhata in Komna block is the same.

The highest content of fluoride has been recorded at 5.4 mg/litre in the water of the tube wells at Dhumabhata village in Boden block, official sources said.

Sources said three out of the six blocks in the district — Boden, Komna and Khariar (urban area) — are the worst affected.

Sources said of the around 6,000 tube wells in the district, the department had declared water of 1,705 as having high fluoride content. The department had sealed some of the tube wells and warned people against using the water of the other tube wells. The special project to deal with the situation is being executed at a cost of Rs 273.87 crore.

Sources said that at present, pipe water was being supplied to 82 villages while work was on to supply pure water to 61 more villages.

Executive engineer of rural water supply and sanitation of Khariar Binod Sethi said some pipe water projects had been completed while work of some others were on.