Rapid growth, minimal supply: (From top) The Gadeswar Haat, which doesn’t have access to safe drinking water and toilet, and the water tank near the pumping station of the public health engineering organisation. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, March 18: Areas of ward No. 13 such as Vir Surendra Sai (VSS) Nagar, Gadeswar Haat besides some slums suffer from multiple civic problems. They face acute shortage of water, lack of a primary health centre and a community centre.

The area with a population of around 15,000 has undergone rapid expansion with many double and triple storied structures coming up in the last few years. However, there has been no change in supply of water.

“Water supply capacity remains what it was decades ago. So, many areas face scarcity during summer,” said local councillor Sudhiranjan Kar.

“There are two reservoirs in the locality, a high-level tank and an underground reservoir. But they need to be upgraded as the population in the area has increased manifold. Some pockets such as Mahavir and Dhirukut slum, where the urban poor live, also suffer from water scarcity in the summer as the tubewells do not supply adequate water,” Kar added.

Anuj Kumar Sahu, another local resident and lecturer in a city-based engineering college, said: “On many occasions in the morning or evening, water supply is stopped for reasons best known to the authorities. This creates problems.”

Public health engineering organisation (PHEO) officials, however, refuted the allegations. “The commercial use of residential areas by house owners has become a phenomenon in the entire city. At present, 25 to 40 people share the same amount of drinking water, which was earlier meant for a family of five to 10 people. People have also gone to the extent of running hostels in the residential areas. Nevertheless, to meet the requirement, we are supplying more water for a longer period of time. Are the house owners aware of the infrastructure needed to receive more water as per their requirements? One has to change the width of the pipe to receive more water. Even a user can monitor the water supply standard by using water metre to know how much is being supplied to individual houses by PHEO,’’ said a senior engineer.

“For the main market square of VSS Nagar there is no drainage system, resulting in spilling over of the wastewater by traders on the roads. The Gadeswar Haat with 200 permanent and 300 temporary shops has no drinking water, drainage and toilet facilities. The inside pathways in the market also need to be renovated soon,” added the engineer.

Hadibandhu Sahu, secretary of the market, said that though the market was one of the oldest in the city, it was not getting any attention from the civic authorities.

“The basic amenities for traders should be developed in the market as soon as possible,” he said. While the market is open with 200 permanent shopkeepers daily, the weekly market is held three days a week — on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Although the ward has one of the oldest housing colonies in the city, there is no primary health centre. Even the industrial estate in the nearby ward No. 6 (Mancheswar) has no primary health centre.

“Even for small health-care needs, people have to go to the Capital Hospital in Unit VI which is nearly 6km away. The health department and the local civic authority should try their best to establish a primary health centre in the ward,” said the local councillor.

The ward doesn’t even have a community centre. “The BMC should initiate a plan to construct a community centre soon,’’ he added.