Odisha: Two-Day Training For Mapping Urban Water Bodies Held in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: The Department of Housing and Urban Development (H&UD), Govt. of Odisha in collaboration with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) has organised a 2-day training program on the Mapping of Urban Water Bodies.

The training programme was inaugurated by Sangramjit Naik, Director of Municipal Administration.
In his inaugural address, Naik told about the importance of the programme for the State and the programme implementation as a structured Citizen Led initiative. He elaborated on how the collective synergy between the elected representatives, women self-help groups, municipal engineers and student interns is the key to successful implementation. Now the Corporators/Councillors, Ward Officers, Municipal Engineers, City Mission Managers, Community Organizers and TULIP Interns are being trained for the Pilot Phase.

Sagarika Patnaik, Special Secretary-cum-State AMRUT Mission Director, Sarada Prasad Panda Joint Secretary-cum-Project Director, SUDA also spoke on the occasion. They highlighted the values & technical functions of the urban wetlands & water bodies , built their capacity on mapping & assessment of urban wetland health, and root causes for their degradation and developed community-led restoration strategies to restore, preserve, reclaim and rejuvenate the urban water bodies.

Over 40 officials from Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Cuttack Municipal Corporation, Parlakhemundi Municipality, Jajpur Municipality, Paradeep Municipality, Athamallik NAC, Boudhgarh NAC, Chikiti NAC and Digapahandi NAC, have taken part in the training held at the State Urban Development Agency (SUDA).

Bhakta Kabi Das, Additional Secretary-cum-Chief Engineer, H&UDD, Mr Anup Das Retd.-Sr. Scientists, the State Ground Water Development Board and a group of high-level experts from the NIUA facilitating the training.

Under this Pilot Phase, the H&UD Department has shortlisted 19 water bodies – 16 water bodies from Special City Water Action Plan under AMRUT 2.0 (CWAP) and 3 water bodies from the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. The department is committed to its vision and mission of rejuvenating all urban water bodies across the state in a systematic and sustainable manner.