Drinking water scarcity in disaster-hit Ganjam district

People in Odisha's cyclone and flood ravaged Ganjam district are reeling under severe water scarcity due to disruption of water supply in both rural and urban areas, including Berhampur.
"We had only a few litres of filtered water stored when our area got inundated last Saturday... We did not preserve more water and are paying the price now," B P Choudhury, a resident of Aska town, about 40kms from here, said.
Like Choudhury, thousands of other residents in the district are waiting for water supply by relief teams.
Supply of drinking water in the district has been affected primarily because all the rural pipeline networks have been damaged in the cyclone and subsequent floods.

Official sources said that water supply in urban areas, including Berhampur, has been disrupted owing to power failure.
"There are 971 rural piped water schemes in the district. Out of which, we have restored 109 till now," Executive Engineer of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) department, Sitaram Panda said.
"We are using 271 tankers for supplying water to affected areas," he added.
Water supply in Behrampur was also affected as one out of two schemes was not functioning. While the Dakhinapur scheme was operative supplying around 30 million litres per day (MLD), the other project at Bada Madhapur was out of order since the day when Phailin hit the district.