Puri Becomes The First Indian City to Achieve High Quality Water Supply From Tap

Odisha’s Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the “Sujal: Drink from Tap Mission” in Puri. With the launch of this initiative, Odisha’s Puri became the first city in India to provide high-quality drinking water, on a 24-hour basis from the tap. Clean drinking water is now being provided directly from taps, which requires no further filtration. Apparently, Puri is one of the “char dham” pilgrimage sites for Hindus and is also known as Sri Jagnnatha Dhama.

This is a great initiative, and will consequently reduce the intake of water from plastic bottles, reducing 400 metric tons of plastic waste and the state’s carbon footprint.

Odisha’s, Chief Minister claimed that it will provide  2.5 lakh Puri residents – including nearly two crore people who visit the pilgrim city annually – quality drinking water directly from the tap.

Image: Zee News

According to an official release, pilgrims will have access to 120 drinking water fountains set up by the state all along Grand Road and other hotspots. Strict control systems will be followed for the surveillance of the “Sujal: Drink from Tap mission.”

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Women from self-help groups have been assigned jobs for conducting water quality tests. Real-time water quality will be displayed in public places by using LCD screens.

According to the Urban Development Minister Pratap Jena, a similar project is under implementation. It’s an incredible achievement for the city to avail high-quality drinking water directly via taps.

However, not everyone is rejoicing with this new project implementation. Some environmentalists, including Jagannath Bastia, a resident of Puri, have questioned the credibility and sustainability of the scheme as the Bhargavi river is the new water supply source in the town.

Via: Zee News