Baliapal, October 9, 2024: Reiterating commitment to ensure good health and hygiene for the communities in and around the proposed Subarnarekha Port in the district, Tata Steel Foundation (TSF) has installed a solar-powered water tank in kankadapal village of Chaumukh Grampanchayat in Baliapal block. The facility – equipped with five distribution pipelines – is currently supplying around 12,000 litres of potable safe and pure drinking water daily to 80 households of the village.
Being located in the northern coast of Odisha, the village has been prone to cyclones and storms which continue to pollute and contaminate the ground water in the region every now and then.
“Ground water was the only source of drinking water for us and it got polluted mostly after cyclone Yaas hit the region in 2021. We had been struggling for clean drinking water since then and hardly had access to clean drinking water for our families,” says Savitri Devi a resident of the village noting how community members struggled to find clean water sources.
“We are happy that the new water tank installed by TSF is providing potable drinking water every day to our households,” adds Savitri.
Chaumukh village, which faced devastating consequences from Cyclone Yaas along with a row of various other habitations in the northern coast of Odisha, has long struggled with the issue of water contamination.
The cyclone had inundated the land with seawater, severely disrupting the water table in the area. This led to high levels of iron in the groundwater, rendering water from ponds and borewells salty, with a slight metallic aftertaste and overall unsafe.
Another such solar powered drinking water project is currently going on in ward number 7 of Chaumukh village and the company management has planned for similar borewell in Pratappur Grampanchayat as well. In an effort to promote community involvement, TSF has handed over the water tank’s management in kankadapal village to the Lakshmi Mata Self-Help Group (SHG), a local women-led initiative. The SHG, led by 13 women, is overseeing the daily distribution and maintenance of the system. According to Renuka Maity, president of the SHG, “This water tank is essential for our families, especially our children, as it provides them with safe, pure water—something we have struggled for long to access.”
Reducing dependency on conventional power sources and contribute to sustainable energy practices, the Foundation has established solar panels to harness solar energy for the purpose. It also has plans to expand this sustainable initiative across other impacted coastal areas in Balasore, seeking to improve water accessibility and overall living conditions for the rural communities.
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