Bhubaneswar: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Odisha Government has decided to set up a Centre of Excellence ‘Odisha Water Academy’ at Bhubaneswar. The Academy will function as a pioneering training and capacity-building institution in the field of water and wastewater service provision. The main objective of the institution is to enhance the quality and service levels in the sector for customer satisfaction and for better health and environmental outcomes.
The establishment of ‘Odisha Water Academy’ is another progressive step in line with the Hon’ble Chief Minister’s vision towards transformative reforms in the water and wastewater sector in the state.
Pratap Jena, Minister for Housing & Urban Development, Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water, Law, Government of Odisha stated that safe drinking water and wastewater service provision to each urban household in the state is a priority of the Government. The Academy will be beneficial to the personnel working under the Water Corporation of Odisha (WATCO), Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO), Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage Board (OWSSB), and other related organizations supporting the sector and services for their capacity development, he added.
The training and capacity building undertaken by the Academy will be for both managers and workers and will include both induction and in-house stages. It will enable them to remain up-to-date with state-of-the-art, innovative, hi-tech technologies and advanced management skills to run the water and wastewater business in the State more efficiently than before.
The Academy would be registered as a Society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and would work under the administrative control of WATCO.
It would be managed under its own Memorandum of Association and Rules & Regulations with a Governing Body headed by the Principal Secretary, Housing & Urban Development Department-cum-Chairman, WATCO, and supported by a professional Training Partner team and world-class professional institutional partnership.
