Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 21: Several villages of Bandipora district in North Kashmir are facing scarcity of drinking water despite administration boasting about providing tapped water to the people.
The residents from several areas including Nathpora, Kuloosa, and Gratmahalla said the water crisis in the areas has exposed the big claims of administration about providing clean drinking water to the people. For instance, Nathpora locality, hardly two kilometers away from Mini Secretariat Bandipora is without water supply from last many years with residents blaming the administration for being unsympathetic towards their problems.
The water supply scheme, residents said, established to provide drinking water to Budshah Mohallah turned out a sham as it could not provide water to the area. With the result, they said, the residents were forced to get water from a nearby stream which can influence their health. “The pipes were laid and huge money was wasted on it. But the facilities served no purpose,” a resident said.
In an adjacent locality, Kaloosa, the residents have been repeatedly protesting over water shortage. “No one is listening to us, we are facing water crisis in this severe weather,” a resident said.
As per the figures of the administration out of total 45714 reported households, 31936 households (69.86%) have tap water connection and 13778 households (30.13%) are without tap water connection.
If census report is believed, a total number of 25625 (56.05%) households are receiving water as per 55 Liters Per Capita Daily (LPCD) norms while as 20089 (43.94%) households are not getting the water as per prescribed norms.
The residents of the affected areas have contested the claims of the census and accused authorities of deceiving the government by showing their areas in connected households despite water scarcity. “The census was done to paint a bright picture and mask the original position,” locals said.
Executive Engineer PHE division Bandipora, Abdul Khaliq Qureshi, told Excelsior that apart from some hilly areas, all the villages are being provided with the draining water. “We do not have any major problems here and the department is trying to use services of water tankers to meet the demands of areas with water deficiency,” he said.
Meanwhile, the residents appealed to lieutenant Governor, Manoj Singh, to intervene into the matter and make sure water supply to these areas.
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