With every passing day, drinking water scarcity is more acute in, the thickly populated residential colonies in Nua Bazaar, Bada Padia, Nehru Bungalow and Ghanagholia.
The situation is worse in the 26 slum settlements .
Major areas in the port town and its peripheral slum areas are reeling under severe drinking water crisis.
The Paradip Port Trust has 2,600 employees and the population in the port town area is over 85,000.
PPT is catering the drinking water to the whole populace, but also to the international ships.
There are three water reservoirs in Paradip port which are equipped to store three million gallons of water.
But the required drinking water demand in the township and slum pockets have now gone up to five million gallons a day.The water treatment plant of 6-MGD suffers due to lack of maintenance.
Digging of siltation and repairing work is going at Jobra of Cuttack so supply of water of Mahanadi has been severely stopped through Taladanda canal causing acute shortage of water in the said canal.
Executive Engineer, Mahanadi South Division, Cuttack Mr Baleswernath Sahoo said ‘as per the requirement of PPT, irrigation department has been supplied 250 cusec water through Taladadanda canal.
In view of the repair work the supply has been curtailed to once a day instead of twice.

The US government development fund arm OPIC has committed $12.5 million loan for a project to deliver affordable clean drinking water to low and middle-income groups in India.
The loan will go to the Indian subsidiary of California-based WaterHealth International Inc — WaterHealth India Pvt Ltd — to install 900 decentralised plants to purify water on site and sell it at price three to four times lower than bottled water alternatives currently available in the market.
The $12.5 million (₹80 crore) loan from the Overseas Private Investment Arm (OPIC) will go to a project that will expand access to affordable clean drinking water to millions of low and middle-income people in India, OPIC said in a statement.
The clean water vending machines are to be installed at places like railway stations, bus stations, shopping malls, public and private institutions or any high footfall location where consumers are able to purchase purified water ranging in amounts from 300 ml to 5 litres.
Most consumers carry their own bottles and WaterHealth refills them but consumers may also purchase reusable bottles.
“This project offers an innovative approach to making safe water more available and affordable and illustrates how businesses can develop new solutions to long standing global challenges,” said Ray W Washburne, President and CEO, OPIC.
Health hazards Citing limited access to safe drinking water a major health and economic challenge in most parts of the world, OPIC said India alone is estimated to have 16.3 crore people who do not have access to safe water, a major cause of diarrhoeal illnesses that results in 500 deaths of children under the age of five each day.
In addition to this massive health cost, insufficient affordable water supplies pose a significant economic and overall quality of life cost, particularly for women, whose time spent gathering water often takes away from time spent on other household tasks or with family or earning income outside the home, it said.
“Built around the latest quality and operational monitoring technologies, this platform allows anyone the ability to sustainably and affordably provide safe drinking water to consumers in urban and rural areas and in weeks instead of years,” said Sanjay Bhatnagar, CEO of WaterHealth International.
OPIC’s loan to WaterHealth was committed under OPIC’s new 2X Global Women’s Initiative to mobilise $1 billion to invest in women and unlock the economic opportunity they represent.

New Delhi, Mar 26 The US government development fund arm OPIC has committed USD 12.5 million loan for a project to deliver affordable clean drinking water to low and middle-income groups in India.
The loan will go to the Indian subsidiary of California based WaterHealth International Inc — WaterHealth India Pvt Ltd — to install 900 decentralised plants to purify water on site and sell it at price three to four times lower than bottled water alternatives currently available in the market.
The USD 12.5 million (Rs 80 crore) loan from the Overseas Private Investment Arm (OPIC) will go to a project that will expand access to affordable clean drinking water to millions of low and middle-income people in India, OPIC said in a statement.
The clean water vending machines are to be installed at places like railway stations, bus stations, shopping malls, public and private institutions or any high footfall location where consumers are able to purchase purified water ranging in amounts from 300 ml to 5 litres.
Most consumers carry their own bottles and WaterHealth refills them but consumers may also purchase reusable bottles.
"This project offers an innovative approach to making safe water more available and affordable and illustrates how businesses can develop new solutions to long standing global challenges," said Ray W Washburne, OPIC President and CEO.
"By increasing access to clean water, the project will improve the health and quality of life for millions of Indians, particularly women who typically have the primary responsibility for obtaining and managing the household water supply."
"Built around the latest quality and operational monitoring technologies, this platform allows anyone the ability to sustainably and affordably provide safe drinking water to consumers in urban and rural areas and in weeks instead of years," said Sanjay Bhatnagar, CEO of WaterHealth International.
OPIC’s loan to WaterHealth was committed under OPIC’s new 2X Global Women’s Initiative to mobilise USD 1 billion to invest in women and unlock the economic opportunity they represent.
In addition to expanding the availability of safe water, the project is projected to create more than 1,300 jobs in India and introduce advanced technologies and business models for providing potable water.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has given nod to the local self-governments to utilise money from plan fund for distributing potable water to areas where there is acute shortage.Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday reviewed the water scarcity in the state at a meeting with the District Collectors.
According to the order, the grama panchayats in the state can spend Rs 5.5 lakh while municipalities and corporations can spend Rs 11 lakh and Rs 16.5 lakh, respectively, before March 31.The government has also given approval for using Rs 11 lakh for panchayats and Rs 16.5 lakh for municipalities from April 1 to May 31.
The government order also said potable water should be distributed only through the tankers fitted with GPS.
The LSGs can distribute water through the kiosks installed by the Revenue Department.
The district-level chiefs of LSGs should ensure that the Revenue Departments can track down the proceedings through GPS.
The report on the proceedings should be submitted to the respective District Collectors once in two weeks regularly.
The funds can be utilised only after inspecting the GPS log and the log books of the vehicles.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has given nod to the local self-governments to utilise money from plan fund for distributing potable water to areas where there is acute shortage.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday reviewed the water scarcity in the state at a meeting with the District Collectors.
According to the order, the grama panchayats in the state can spend `5.5 lakh while municipalities and corporations can spend `11 lakh and `16.5 lakh, respectively, before March 31.
The government has also given approval for using `11 lakh for panchayats and `16.5 lakh for municipalities from April 1 to May 31.
The government order also said potable water should be distributed only through the tankers fitted with GPS.
The LSGs can distribute water through the kiosks installed by the Revenue Department.
The district-level chiefs of LSGs should ensure that the Revenue Departments can track down the proceedings through GPS.
The report on the proceedings should be submitted to the respective District Collectors once in two weeks regularly.
The funds can be utilised only after inspecting the GPS log and the log books of the vehicles.

"Water is sacred for First Nations and key to a healthy environment and the health and well-being of all living things," said National Chief Bellegarde.
"Yet too many First Nations are living at risk with no access to clean water.
The federal government’s goal of ending all drinking water advisories in First Nations communities by 2021 is clearly a challenge, but we can achieve it by working together in a spirit of partnership and reconciliation.
In Canada, as of March 5 there are 81 long-term drinking water advisories in 56 First Nation communities affecting 45,000 First Nations citizens who do not have access to safe drinking water.
The only way the federal government will achieve their commitments to end drinking water advisories by March 2021 is through significant investments in First Nation communities and by working with us to support capacity and innovation."
The Decade will focus on the sustainable development and integrated management of water resources to achieve social, economic and environmental objectives, the implementation and promotion of related programs and projects, as well as furthering cooperation and partnership at all levels to help to achieve internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, including those in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 commits to ensure everyone in the world has access to safe drinking water by 2030.
The AFN is the national organization representing First Nations citizens in Canada.
SOURCE Assembly of First Nations For further information: For media requests or more information, please contact: Jamie Monastyrski, Press Secretary, National Chief’s Office, 343-540-6179 (cell), jamiem@afn.ca; Monica Poirier, Bilingual Communications Officer, 613-241-6789 ext.
382, 613-290-0706 (cell), poirierm@afn.ca

Cameroonians joined the world over to observe World Water Day, March 22 but by far not every city in the country enjoys easy access to the commodity.
In Cameroon, residents of major cities suffer frequent water cuts, with schools impacted in particular.
Some residents, in Yaounde, capital city of Cameroon Yaounde say barely 35 percent of water supplied.
Many have resorted to unsafe sources to get the precious liquid.
A statement by a UNICEF official, in commemoration of the International World Water Day, said access to safe drinking water remained a challenge, noting that the recent studies, conducted by the government, indicated that about 40 percent of households and millions in rural areas walked long distances to source unsafe water from lakes, streams and river.
The statement said: “Children without access to safe water are more likely to die in infancy and throughout childhood from waterborne diseases.
Diarrhea remains the leading cause of death among children under five years of age in Far North Cameroon.” Little wonder why malnutrition reigns supreme in the country’s Northern regions.
With longer dry season and little rainfall, residents in the area more than often resort to nearby ponds and streams to get the precious liquid.

When a child has access to clean drinking water close to home, they have a chance to go to school, to learn, to play with their friends and to have a childhood.
Many children spend hours every day walking to collect water, sometimes missing out on a chance to go to school.
This journey can be dangerous.
The jerry cans of water the children carry can be heavy, normally around 20 kilos.
This is what sisters Eva and Catherine told me when I met them last month in South Sudan.
Like many other families, they now live in an area that does not have enough clean water for everyone.
The walk back home is tough, especially for older sister Eva who lost the lower part of her arm when she was a child.
They struggle with the weight of the jerry cans and the heat of the sun.
When I asked older sister Eva what she would do if she didn’t have to spend so long collecting water every day, she said she would go to school.
This year, UNICEF is working to bring clean water to around 800,000 people across South Sudan.

SWAMPSCOTT– World Water Day splashed into the halls of Swampscott High School as a group of about a dozen students marched to raise money for Barka Foundation, a non-governmental organization that works to provide clean water Burkina Faso, Africa.
“We want to do everything we can to help.” All together, around $300 was raised, according to the school’s French club advisor and Interact club co-advisor, Melissa Albert.
It works closely with the Rotary Club of Swampscott, according to Albert.
The French club also got involved because French is one of the more than 60 languages spoken in Burkina Faso.
Students from Marblehead High School’s Interact and French organizations, including Bobbi Dynice, Gaby Rabinovich, and Emma Grazado, joined the Swampscott students Thursday.
“We were put into contact with Marblehead through Burka,” Albert said.
“We decided it would be cool to join forces.” Each of the Marblehead students carried a gallon of water on the walk in order to represent the hardships of some women in Burkina Faso who must walk around six kilometers to and from the nearest water source with buckets balanced on their heads.
“It’s good to get involved however we can,” Dynice said.
“This is a good learning experience for our students because it combines community and language,” Albert said.
“It’s about them becoming engaged global citizens.”

DADU: Bashir Mallah, a resident of Goth Hassan Shah which is located on the bank of Pakistan biggest freshwater lake – Manchar – commutes four kilometres daily to fetch drinking water for his family.
“We live near the Pakistan’s biggest freshwater lake but we don’t get drinking water from the lake,” Mallah said.
During the visit of this area, one can see people, especially women and children, carrying jerrycans, pitchers and pots, walking miles in search of water.
According to a study ‘The Water Gap – The State of the World’s Water 2018’ published by an international non-profit organisation – WaterAid – on the occasion of World Water Day that was observed around the globe on March 22, 21 million in Pakistan don’t have access to clean water.
Another recent study conducted by the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) states that 84 percent of the total population of Pakistan does not have access to safe drinking water in a country where commercial banks post windfall profits exceeding Rs 475 billion in three years.
Spreading over an area of 350 Sq km that swells to 500 Sq km during monsoon, the lake is divided into Dadu and Jamshoro district, the home district of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah.
On the complaints of the local residents of around 100, Sindh government has installed 20 reverse osmosis plants to provide filtered water, but almost all the plants stopped working just one year after becoming operational.
“In September 2017, the Sindh government directed the Sindh Irrigation Department and the project management of the Right Bank Outfall Drainage to stop operation of the RO plants,” claimed Sher Muhammad Mallah, a local resident of Goth Saindad Mallah.
Contamination of lake has forced hundreds of thousands of people of nearby villages to migrate to other areas, said Nasir Ali Panhwar of Friends of Indus Forum.
Published in Daily Times, March 23rd 2018.