Odisha is providing drinking water on tap: How did it achieve the monumental feat?

In 2017, the Odisha government initiated its ‘drink from tap’ mission for its urban areas. As of now, it stands as the first and only state in the country to guarantee drinking water quality on household tap connections.

The aim was to reduce the expenditure of money, resources and time involved in fetching water by the urban poor, to eradicate waterborne diseases and eliminate household investments in overhead water tanks, underground reservoirs, motor pumps and reverse osmosis (RO)-based water filters.

Essentially, this means that the state’s water department is providing 24x7 ‘drink from tap’ quality water to every household in urban Odisha for cooking and drinking that does not require further filtration or boiling.

As of now, the mission covers 2.55 million people in eight cities — Puri, Gopalpur, Nimapada, Brahmapur, Champua, Rajgangpur, Birmitrapur and Rairangpur. Work is underway in 17 other cities, including the capital Bhubaneswar, with the target to cover 4.1 million people in urban Odisha by end of this year.

This achievement was made possible by emphasising two primary objectives: First ensuring 24x7 water supply and then ensuring quality. On the surface, it appears to be a two-step process, but in practice, it entails a monumental task in a country where a large part of the population lacks access to safe drinking water.

To assess the feasibility of the project, Water Corporation of Odisha (WATCO), under Odisha government’s housing and urban development department, which is the implementing agency of the mission, initiated a pilot project in Ishaneswar Basti, one of the largest slums in Bhubaneswar. The pilot helped the agency understand the potential challenges it might face.

The houses there lacked a 24x7 water supply or taps, so the initial task was to ensure that. Subsequently, during implementation, it was discovered that the demand for water at the consumer level was three times greater than initially estimated.

WATCO then engaged Indian Institue of Technology, Madras to thoroughly inspect the entire pipe network, but couldn’t identify any issues.

“Later, it was discovered that a type of pipe fittings called ferrule was leaking, leading to significant losses that were not initially measured,” said Pradipta Kumar Swain, chief executive officer, WATCO. “All ferrules were replaced with saddle clamps and compressor fittings to ensure a watertight connection. It helped us understand the challenges ahead.”

Now, most ferrules in household connections across different cities have been replaced, emphasising the importance of treating household connections as public works. This was done at government cost to prevent any defects or compromises in quality at the connection point. “Defect or quality compromise could lead to leakages and contamination, posing a public health risk,” said Swain. 

WATCO also assessed pipelines and replaced about 10 per cent of the pipes that were frequently damaged or bursting.

How did Odisha manage this, which no other state has been able to do yet?

Managing 24x7 water supply

The Indian Standard (IS) specification for drinking water is IS 10500, meaning if the supplied water conforms to this standard, it can be used for drinking purposes. To achieve this, the primary task was to ensure uninterrupted 24x7 water supply to prevent pollutants from entering the pipe network.

Swain said leakages are inevitable in any city’s piped network due to its extensive length and numerous joints and holes. With Bhubaneswar alone having 200,000 household connections, each connection poses a potential leakage point. “No country can boast of a leak-proof system, for example, Tokyo’s non-revenue water is 4 per cent and Singapore’s 8 per cent,” he said.

During leakages, water comes into contact with pollutants. In intermittent supply, when supply halts, outside water infiltrates through pipeline holes and joints, contaminating household taps. However, in 24x7 supply, despite leakages, the pipeline remains pressurised, preventing such contamination.

“Leakages will occur from the pipe to the outside, but outside water can never enter the pipeline. That’s the basic theory. Not only Odisha, but the whole country supplies good quality water, but due to intermittent supply, it gets contaminated and no one can guarantee it.  When we implemented 24x7 supply, we could work towards that guarantee,” Swain said.

Before the mission started, there was a significant disparity in water supply in the state. In urban Odisha, only 40 per cent of the area was under a piped network, out of which only 30 per cent of houses had tap connections. Currently, in the state’s 115 urban local bodies, 107 have 100 per cent tap connections and the rest will be completed by April 2025, said Swain. 

The target is 1.1 million household connections in urban Odisha and 1.07 million have been covered so far.

However, 24x7 supply doesn’t automatically translate to drinkable water. The next task was to ensure quality.

IS 10500 specifies 30 quality parametres, including chemical and metal content, on the basis of which the safety of water is assessed. Swain explained that treatment and testing of water occur at multiple steps throughout the day before it reaches the consumer tap.

“Quality from the water treatment plant (WTP) to the consumer tap is thoroughly monitored regularly on a daily basis,” he said.

Raw (river) water is tested three times a day to assess its quality and pumped through a pipeline to a WTP, where it undergoes the required treatments.

From there, the water goes to a local reservoir, where the quality is tested again. Each city has been divided into different district metred areas (DMA). These DMAs are isolated from other areas, which means that water from one area cannot enter another and vice versa. One DMA typically contains between 500 and 3,000 houses. Each DMA typically has an area reservoir.

At this point, ‘free residual chlorine’ levels are measured. “When we inject chlorine at the WTP level, the bacteria consume chlorine and die. When all bacteria have died, whatever chlorine remains is called free chlorine. It indicates that all germs have been killed. So, that has to be measured before supplying water to the consumer tap,” said Swain.

At the tap level, it should be at least 0.2 parts per million (ppm) and a maximum of 0.5 ppm but to maintain that level, the engineers have to ensure 3 or 4 ppm at the WTP level. Meanwhile, a water testing laboratory continuously monitors water quality. 

The biggest assurance of the project is real-time quality surveillance. Both assets and consumers in the entire city have been geo-mapped on the geographic information systems platform and real-time data is fed to a central server.

Water engineers at WATCO can monitor the quality of water in real-time at the intake through this method and check different stages of the treatment process. Mobile van laboratories have also been deployed to ensure on-site water quality testing, surveillance and monitoring.

Need for behavioural change

However, bringing about a behavioural change in citizens has been a lengthy process. The government has recognised the need for community partnership to achieve this through its jal sathi initiative, engaging women from self-help groups (SHG) as facilitators of urban drinking water supply management.

“SHG members are representatives of the communities they live in and roping them in was essential for effective service delivery and inclusivity,” said Bhabani Shankar Mohanty, general manager, Puri division, WATCO.

There are 947 jal sathis in the state, engaged in an incentive model. They read water metres, undertake doorstep water bill distribution and digitally collect water fees, collect water and sewerage taxes, facilitate new water connections and regularise existing unauthorised connections.

The jal sathis also conduct field testing of water quality at the user end, facilitate consumer complaint redressal and sensitise the public on the drink from tap mission, water conservation and health and hygiene aspects.

Meanwhile, besides tapped water at the household level, water fountains are also available in the cities.

The project will soon undergo a third-party evaluation by the National Institute of Urban Affairs, an independent organisation within the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs.

It has already gained significant attention. Delhi Jal Board in the capital is in talks with WATCO to hire it as a consulting agency and Chennai has already hired it.

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