By Ankit Kedia:
There has been witnessed an increasing problem in water quality that is being supplied in the Rourkela city. After proper investigation, we came to know that there exist two prominent regions from where the water is supplied in most of the Rourkela city. It all happened when we were working across a project on water resources and carrying out a survey in the city.
Rourkela, essentially known for the SAIL steel plant named as RSP (Rourkela Steel Plant) is a great place to live in with good people around. However, the city lacks high ended façade section of a city with good infrastructure. There are no malls present here. There is only one single theatre which is in a very abysmal state. Also, the two sections from which water is supplied, the one of them is really in need to be looked into. The water source form which water is supplied is very rich in iron. Iron element leads to excessive hair fall and other skin associated problems. One of the sections from which our institute receives water is a subject of real worry. The purification units are of very poor state and unworthy to be used.
There is a supply of around 1, 00,000 gallons a day to the whole campus of the institute. After the site visit we came to know from the operator of the water unit that it has been years since any up gradation or scaling of the technology had been implemented at the place. We ourselves had a look at the systems. There were some simple hut shaped rectangular tanks labeled as settling tank, filtering tank and so on, but it hardly seemed like a purification unit. The operator had been on temporary basis of contract, even after having served the place for a rolling 9 months was in a sad state. He said “Bhaiya, maine apne jindagi ke lagbhag 9 saal is jageh ko diya, phir bhi mujhe sirf 3, 500 rupaye milte hain”. He also told me how some top order ‘babu’, who was the fund allocator for the place, was misusing the finances. He narrated to me an incident of how a co—worker got the tip of his finger sliced and was bleeding heavily. After all this he was merely paid a compensation of mere Rs.50. That is something really insane and disgusting. This shows how people often tend to lose their human morale and good will once they attain positions of authority.
After inspection we were surprised to see that the place lacked even the basic infrastructure of stay for the workers. They slept on a less of human abode and more of in appearance, some moron lunatic asylum kind of place, with water wet walls seeping at all times. They made use of a bucket to collect the sipping water. Also what we noticed about the important government files was something very abysmal. The water supply documents were half swollen by the water absorption and rest cut in pieces by the rats. Also it was all of a web matrix that housed the data.
We were therein order to know about how the purification and cleaning of water in all works thus, making it ready for supply. This grim state of affairs was really disturbing. When we sat down to discuss solutions to some of the problems there, we were told that that currently the section was being controlled by a local administrator. However, as the most of the purified water was being supplied to our institute, it seemed faceable for the authorities to hand over the responsibility to ours institute administration. It would go a long way in providing relief. Now, the real challenge me and my friends are facing is how to voice this opinion to the top authorities of our institute.