Suhail Rather
Bandipora, July 14: Residents of Chandergeer, Nowpora and Hajin area of North Kashmir’s Bandipora district are facing acute shortage of potable drinking water from last several months.
According to locals, there is lack of proper source for potable drinking water in the area which prompts them to drink the polluted water as the water taps have dried up. “We are forced to take the impure water from the nearby stream as taps in our homes and localities have run dry. The water we take from the stream is unhygienic which can have an adverse impact on the health of consumers,” said Bashir Ahmad, sarpanch of the area.
He said that every day they cover a long distance to fetch water from stream or a tube well which is far away from locality.“It takes us half an hour to fetch a single bucket of water. We have to fetch water from different areas for cooking and other household purposes,” they said.
Gh Rasool Mir, a local resident of area said that despite they have made repeated pleas to the administration but “things remained unchanged on the ground.” “We knocked door of every concerned department. They assured to resolve the problem but nothing happened,” they said.
Rasool said although officials assured special water tankers for the villages but authorities rarely visit the villages. “How can one tanker of water be sufficient for five hundred households,” he questioned.
The villagers even held a demonstration in the past, highlighting their plight to the government, but to no avail. “Despite our protest, the government has not made any arrangements of water pipes. We are suffering a lot. We have also approached the Jal Shakti Officials to restore the service at the earliest but the authorities are turning a deaf ear towards our grievance,” said Ghulam Ahmad.
They said that Jal Shakti department failed to restore water supply in the area, thereby forcing them to come out on roads.
The residents appealed the Deputy Commissioner Bandipora Dr Owais Ahmad to look into the matter so that the normal water supply service can be restored.
