Bhubaneswar, Feb. 9: The state government will implement the Odisha State Urban Water Supply Policy from the coming financial year to streamline water supply.

The new policy puts emphasis on quality of drinking water, said urban development minister Puspendra Singhdeo.

"We are handicapped by manpower crunch. Discussions are on to create an urban cadre in the government, so that adequate employees would be available for quality control and monitoring of the supply of drinking water," he said.

The minister was responding an adjournment motion on the outbreak of water-borne diseases reported in several places across the state due to water contamination.

"The government appears to be taking the matter casually. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik or the departmental minister should have owned the responsibility and rise to the occasion," said Opposition leader Narasingha Mishra.

Last month, jaundice had assumed alarming proportions in Sambalpur with the water-borne disease claiming 25 lives. Recently, jaundice outbreak has been reported from some pockets in Cuttack city. More than 50 people are reported to have been afflicted with the water-borne disease.

Conceding that the death of 25 persons in jaundice in Sambalpur, the minister said the city was having old pipelines, which passed through drains, resulting in water contamination. "But, we have sincerely addressed the problem. At present, jaundice has been controlled there," he said.

Listing out the corrective measures initiated in the city, he said drinking water was being supplied to the city residents through tankers after super chlorination. All the leakages in the domestic pipeline connections have been plugged. A Rs 7.32-crore project had been sanctioned to upgrade the drinking water sources. Besides, work orders have been issued to take up a project of Rs 2.86 crore to improve sanitation in the city, he said.

Admitting that the cases of jaundice had been reported at Jobra and Thoria Sahi in Cuttack city, Singhdeo said safe drinking water was being supplied to these affected areas through tankers. He also conceded that water-borne diseases had been reported from some pockets in the Patnagarh and Rajnagar constituencies and said remedial measures were being taken.

Sharing concern over the high fluoride content in drinking water in several pockets of Nuapada district, the minister said that as many as 905 villages in Nuapada district had been affected by high fluoride content. Safe drinking water was being supplied to the affected villages, and now, another 95 tankers would be pressed into service. There was a plan to supply safe drinking water to 2,395 hamlets through two major water supply projects.

The ongoing drinking water supply project in Balangir town, which encounters acute drinking water scarcity, will also be expedited, he said.