Bhubaneswar: Odisha Government’s ‘Drink from Tap Mission’ under the 5T initiative has won the ‘Award of Excellence’ in the 18th CSI SIG eGovernance Award 2020 for smart water management in Puri city amongst 178 nominations received from across India.
WATCO MD Pradipta Kumar Swain received the award on behalf of the State Government from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at an award ceremony held in Lucknow yesterday (February 12) organised by the Computer Society of India (CSI).
CSI, the largest association of information technology professionals in the country, has set up this award since 2002 for recognising and awarding very innovative projects across India through its Special Interest Group (SIG) in eGovernance.
‘Drink from Tap Mission’ called ‘Sujal’ has been launched on October 13, 2020 by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to provide assured quality drinking water fit for direct consumption from the tap to all households in urban areas.
The Mission is a flagship initiative by Water Corporation of Odisha (WATCO) under the State’s Housing & Urban Development (H&UD) Department.
The ‘Drink from Tap Mission’ aims to provide 24×7 safe drinking water supply from a tap on-premise along with addressing water source protection, appropriate water treatment and testing as well as prevention of recontamination in the distribution system.
This is also aimed at eliminating the requirement of investments by individual households on overhead water tank or underground reservoir, motor pump, RO based water filter and purchasing mineral water, the H&UD Department said today.
After successful completion of pilot projects in 12 zones in Bhubaneswar and Puri cities, and after becoming the first State in the country to provide drinking water from the tap to the people, WATCO is now focussing on to cover entire city of Bhubaneswar and Puri and other cities, namely Cuttack, Puri, Khurda, Jatni and Berhampur, and will also be extended to other cities in the State in a phased manner, it added.