Anand Mahindra praises this spiritual city's tap water revolution

Entrepreneur Anand Mahindra has lauded Puri, a coastal town located in the state of Odisha in India, for accomplishing something unprecedented in the country. The spiritual city provides its citizens with the facility to drink tap water without any hesitation. Anand Mahindra has highlighted the achievement through his X account, citing this as an exemplary instance of good governance.

Anand Mahindra on Puri’s transformation to a safe tap water city

According to Anand Mahindra, Puri shows the power of good leadership along with community collaboration in addressing simple civic issues like supplying drinking water. The issue of bad water infrastructure used to be quite prominent here. Water was accessible in only 50% of houses. Many people relied on tankers and bottled water for their water needs and 47% of the water provided was wasted due to leaks.

The entire scenario was different after the government of Odisha came up with an extensive water modernisation program. The water distribution system was transformed into a 24x7 smart network of water. Flow, pressure, and chlorine were monitored through sensors at all times. The water in the Bhargavi River was purified before being distributed for use.

Jal Sathis were also pointed out by Anand Mahindra for their contribution towards building confidence in the system among the local population. It played an important role in educating people about the quality of water and encouraging them to consume tap water directly.

Currently, almost 2.5 lakh people residing in Puri are provided with BIS-approved tap water. According to Anand Mahindra, this system even caters to almost 20 million tourists who visit the city annually. This initiative has led to a marked decrease in water wastage which has been brought down from 47% to about 15%. In addition, there has been a considerable reduction in plastic waste owing to less consumption of bottled water, amounting to approximately 400 metric tonnes per year.

The success of Puri has become an example to follow for many other Indian cities. According to Anand Mahindra, it shows how civic administration can become better through cooperation between leadership, innovation, and the local population. Thus, the implementation of the initiative proves that access to safe tap water is feasible.

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