BHUBANESWAR: Millions of people in Orissa still do not have access to quality drinking water sources even though the State Government continues to boast that a vast majority of the population has been provided potable water.

`State of Drinking Water in Orissa' - a status report prepared by Centre of Water for Life (CWL), a wing of city-based NGO RCDC, has contested the State Government's claim.

``The latest figure of rural development department says 19,053 villages are yet to be provided with drinking water. While coverage information is provided in terms of habitation, the population covered figure is not available," the CWL report said.

Misleading statistics

The report said the statistics provided by the Government for drinking water infrastructure was misleading. ``There were 2,17,256 functional tube-wells, 5,500 sanitary wells and 927 commissioned water supply systems. During the summer, drinking water scarcity is reported from almost the entire State. The problem gets multiplied as there is no equitable distribution of the working tube-wells in habitations,'' said CWL coordinator Tapan Padhi.

He said 1,32,724 tube-wells in the State had exceeded their lifespan of 10 years. The remaining 84,532 which are in good condition, supply water to the entire State.

The CWL said of the 1,14,099 habitations covered under drinking water supply, in 7,802 habitations water sources were found to be containing excessive iron, 233 habitations had fluoride contamination and excess fluoride was detected in the water sources of 129 habitations.

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