Posts filed under ‘Water Resources’
Lower Suktel Irrigation Project of Balangir district: Politics and Reality
Following report is from the Samaja:
Eighty-six percent of Odisha households do not have access to piped water supply
Following report is from the Sambad:
People of Balangir demand completion of lower Suktel irrigation project
Following report is from the Sambad:
Revival of ancient pond culture may solve the water problem in western Odisha
Following report is from the Samaja:
Water, water…nowhere: another water project to quench Balangir thirst
Following report is from the Telegraph:
Balangir, May 2:Water scarcity in this town will soon be a thing of the past with the state government inviting tenders for a second pipe water project.
After members of the Balangir Action Committee, an organisation of civil society in the town, launched a scathing attack on the state government over the erratic pipe water supply and said they would launch an agitation, former minister and local MLA Ananag Udaya Singhdeo came up with the news that tenders had been invited for the new water project for Balangir.
Singhdeo said: “The government was aware about the acute water problem here. We have initiated plan for a second project to address the perennial water problem of the town. We have already invited tenders of Rs 55 crore for the project.”
Executive engineer of the Balangir public health division Bhakta Kavi Das said: “The project estimated to cost about Rs 55 crore will permanently solve the water woes of Balangir. Since water will be drawn from the Tel river near Tarabha, which is a perennial source of water unlike the Mahanadi, there will be no scarcity of water even in summer.”
Das said the project got the technical sanction of the government a couple of months ago.
“Ductile iron pipes will be used instead of concrete ones. This will minimise leakage. Even if there are leakages, they could be easily repaired unlike in the case of concrete pipes. In the second stage, some five overhead tanks will be constructed for better distribution of water in the town,” he said.
Balangir with a population of more than one lakh often reels from acute water scarcity because the existing pipe water project that supplies water to the town from the Mahanadi river in Sonepur, about 50km away from here, hardly serves the purpose. In summer, the problem becomes even more acute.
Sukanta Pani, a local resident, said: “The existing pipe water supply from the Mahanadi in Sonepur is not viable for Balangir. The water supply to the town often breaks down because of problems such as technical snags and natural calamities such as floods. Last year, the town residents had gone without pipe water for 21 days because of the flood in the Mahanadi river that had submerged the intake well and other machineries such as motor pumps and transformers. This year, with the onset of summer the water problem has already compounded. Water supply has been very erratic. Today, after six days, we got pipe water.”
Pani said that a second water project was needed in Balangir. “It is good to know that government has already invited tenders for the new project,” he said.
House committee recommends scrapping of Sindol project
Following report is from http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/house-committee-recommends-scrappingsindol-project/449461/
A house committee of the state legislative assembly constituted to take stock of the ground realities of the controversial 320 MW Sindol hydro power project has recommended scrapping of the project.
“We have placed our views relating to the Sindol project before the house committee. Our views reflect the views of the people affected by the project. The house committee has recommended scrapping of the project,” said BJD MLA and one of the committee members, Padmanav Behera.
The speaker of the legislative assembly and the committee chairman Pradeep Amat, however, declined to comment on the matter.
“The committee’s decision will be known after we place our report in the assembly,” Amat told reporters after the committee’s meeting.
Prasanna Acharya, minister for health and family welfare, who is also a member of the committee said, “We have communicated the opinion of the project affected people in the meeting. I share the same view on the Sindol project with the people of my region. The Naveen Patnaik government will never go against the public opinion on any project.”
Commenting on the absence of Congress and BJP MLAs, he said, “There is no justification in boycotting the meeting of the house committee. The absence of the Opposition MLAs can only be construed as politically motivated.”
The house committee on the controversial Sindol project was constituted after the assembly witnessed a stormy adjournment session in the monsoon session that ended on August 27.
The Opposition Chief Whip Prasad Harichandan had demanded scrapping of the MoU signed with National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) on the project.
The state energy minister Atanu Sabsysachi Nayak had maintained earlier that there was no question of going ahead with the project without the consent of the project affected people.
The Sindol project was to affect 43,461 people belonging to 798 families in 60 villages.
NHPC Ltd (formerly National Hydroelectric Power Corporation) and the Orissa government owned Orissa Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC) had recently signed an MoU to jointly implement three hydel power projects in the state at an estimated cost of Rs 2,600 crore.
The three hydel power projects- Sindol-I (100 MW), Sindol-II (100 MW) and Sindol-III (120 MW) having a total capacity of 320 MW are expected to be commissioned in 4-5 years. All the three hydel power projects will come up onMahanadiriver.
Following is another report from the Sambad:
Kosal Discussion and Development Forum 