Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday launched the ‘JalSathi’ initiative at the Railway Auditorium here. As per this initiative women of the Self Help Groups (SHGs) would take care of water distribution and consumer management.
“Jal Sathi” initiative is an attempt to engage the women from self-help groups in water distribution and consumer management. It has been launched keeping in view women empowerment.
“Clean water is the most important thing for a healthy life. The inclusion of the women this initiative will strengthen the System and it will provide economic empowerment to women volunteers,” said CM Patnaik.
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The women volunteers/JalSathis will collect water tax in at least 114 municipal areas across the State. They will be provided with a testing kit and POS. The JalSathis would manage at least 100 cr liter of water every day.
An MoU has been signed in this connection between Water Corporation of Odisha (WATCO) and Women federation Jal Sathi. Launched under the 5T initiative now it is a pilot project of the state government. About 500 JalSathis will be added later to the list of water volunteers. These women volunteers will ensure the supply of clean drinking water through piped water systems.
The volunteers will also be responsible for field testing of water quality, facilitating new water connections, regularising connections, meter reading and bill generation and facilitating complaints redressal.
The Chief Minister himself paid an amount of Rs. 560 towards water tax.
Ms Kalinga