Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday inaugurated the ‘Drink From Tap’ mission in Puri, making it “the first city in India” to achieve a 24*7 quality drinking water supply, an official said. The initiative to provide water supply adhering to “Quality Standards of IS 10500” will benefit the city’s 2.5- lakh population and 2 crore tourists who visit the holy place annually, he said.
Inaugurating the mission via video conference, Patnaik said providing drink-from-tap quality water to every household was a transformative project and a step in the direction of making Puri a world-class heritage city.
“Puri residents, tourists and pilgrims can now drink water from taps across the city, be it at home or across the drinking water fountains. It has been my dream to provide piped water to every household in Odisha and this is now turning into a reality,” he said.
Pilgrims will have access to 120 drinking water fountains set up by the state all along the Grand Road and other hotspots, an official release said.
Provision of safe drinking water will help prevent the use of three crore plastic bottles, eliminating 400 metric tonnes of plastic waste and reducing the state’s carbon footprint, it said.
