Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 24: Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department is supplying unfiltered drinking water to several villages of North Kashmir’s Handwara area of Kupwara district, posing threat to peoples’ health.
The PHE officials fill tankers with water from Mawar stream at Kahru village of Handwara and then they supply the water meant for drinking to several villages including Yunsua, Kulangam, Kralgund, Palpora, Langate and upper areas of Rajwar.
The locals said that there is no arrangement for filtration of the water and the PHE is feeding them with the contaminated water. “This poses a greater threat to our health and to children in particular,” they said, adding: “there is lot of filth around the stream from where they fill these tanks.”
Admitting that there is no arrangement of filtration, the X-En Pubic Health Engineering (PHE) Handwara, Siraj Ahmad, told Excelsior that he recently took the charge and the issue of unfiltered water has been there for a long. He, however, said that the quality of water that is being supplied is good.
Asked whether the PHE Department is taking any step to supply filtered water, Siraj said: “We will construct filling points near filtration plants. It will take some 15 to 20 days,” he said. He said the Division at Handwara was “full of scams” but “now we are streamlining the things and you will feel the change and results in next four months”.
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