• Campaign Name: Sujal Campaign.
• State / Implementing Agency: Odisha; organized by the Water Corporation of Odisha (WATCO) under the Housing and Urban Development Department.
• Theme / Message: “Water conservation-today’s necessity, the future generation’s destiny”.
• Core Mandate: Promote water conservation, prevent wastage, safeguard surface/groundwater sources, and reduce water-borne illnesses through hygiene and clean storage.

• Disease Burden Reduction: Contaminated drinking water directly causes diarrhoeal diseases, typhoid, cholera, and jaundice. Safe water access operates as preventive healthcare, reducing Out-of-Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) for urban poor households.
• Convergence: Directly aligns with SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation).

• Shift from supply-focused infrastructure (laying pipelines) toward citizen-led demand management (fixing domestic leaks, shutting running taps, curbing wasteful usage).
• Utilizes Nudge Theory through fortnight-long community sensitization to establish civic responsibility around public utilities.

• Odisha’s WATCO model—previously recognized for pioneering the 24×7 “Drink from Tap” initiative (Puri being India’s first city to achieve 100% quality tap water conforming to IS 10500 standards)—demonstrates state-level institutional capacity in urban utility governance.
• Serves as an actionable case study for Reforms in Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and utility corporatization under AMRUT 2.0.

• Highlights the preservation of local water bodies (rivers, ponds, tube wells) from direct domestic and municipal waste dumping.

Safe drinking water, urban utility reforms under AMRUT 2.0, SDG 3 and SDG 6 convergence and demand-side water management are recurring themes for OPSC Prelims (Environment, Polity & Governance) and OPSC Mains GS Paper II & III, with WATCO’s “Drink from Tap” model a ready Odisha-specific case study.

For structured notes on Odisha-specific current affairs, aspirants preparing in Bhubaneswar can join the OPSC Foundation Batch at Strive Edge IAS — recognized as one of the best OPSC OAS coaching institutes in Bhubaneswar.