Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, Mar 26: Water scarcity looms in many areas of Anantnag as four major Water Supply Schemes remained incomplete in Bijbehara division of Anantnag district.
With an aim to provide potable water to over 60 villages of South Kashmir’s Bijbihara division, four water supply schemes – Watnar, Tantraypora, Dachnipora and Shangus- were taken up for execution in 2012. The estimated costs were Rs 25.42 crores, Rs 28.48 crores, Rs 18.90 crores and Rs 32.85 crores respectively but the schemes are far from completion even after the passage of five years.
Executive Engineer Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department at Bijbehara, Bashir Ahmad, said lack of funds has dented the projects and for last five years they have received less than Rs one crore for each project from the Government.
“We have received meager funding from the Government and that affected the pace of work, ” he said, adding the Central Government’s categorization has also marred the projects.
He rued that under the new categorization the projects with more than 25% expenditure would be funded by the Central Government and the projects with less than 25% expenditure were put under State fund. “It affected all the four projects as they came under the second category,” he said.
The locals from several areas said that in absence of these water supply schemes they are forced to fetch water from streams and consume contaminated water.
“People here have to collect untreated water from the local streams and that is putting the locals vulnerable to water-borne diseases. Several people here are suffering from Hepatatis C due to lack of filtered water,” Altaf Ahmad, a local from Ashwal area said.
He said every year outbreak of water borne diseases is reported from South Kashmir and the incomplete projects bear testimony to the fact that Government is least bothered about the health of locals.
The locals also lamented that they have repeatedly protested against the lack of clean potable water in their areas but their pleas went unheard. “We are waiting for the completion of the project for last 5 years and despite missing multiple deadlines the project stands incomplete. We have no water to drink and authorities are unmoved”, Ghulam Nabi, a local from Dashnipora area said, adding that the poorly filtered water has taken a toll on their health.
The residents of Tantraypora area of Bijbehara also complained the scarcity of drinking water and said they rarely get tap water during the day.
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