Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Oct 17: Scarcity of drinking water supply is affecting the daily lives in several Srinagar areas with the PHE officials saying that they are doing everything to deal with the crisis.
Over the period of last month, the residents of several areas have been staging protests over the non-availability of drinking water, while the residents of several areas have already migrated to other places for the want of drinking water.
The areas include Batamaloo, Jawahar Nagar, Sonwar, Press Colony, Gaw Kadal and several old city areas.
On Saturday, the residents of SDA Colony said that they are suffering for the want of drinking water. They said that though they are being supplied drinking water through tankers, they have to wait eternally for these tankers to reach.
“We are suffering for the want of drinking water supply; it is not regular, and when we bring the issue into the notice of the officials, they do not pay any heed,” a Bilal Ahmad a resident of Batamaloo said.
People said that they will be forced to migrate to other places if the problem persists.
The residents of Sonwar, on the other side, complained that they are provided drinking water for just 2 hours a day and for the rest, the taps run dry.
“We have seen this happening for the first time; we literally have to wait for the water to run through taps,” a resident of Sonwar said.
In the Old City Srinagar, while there are few areas where the residents are facing drinking water scarcity, there are scores of areas that are facing the issues of low pressure due to which they are suffering.
Earlier, the residents of Aluchi Bagh in Srinagar stated that they have already migrated to other places where the water supply is constant and had asked the administration to take note of the problem that they are facing.
An official of the PHE department told Excelsior that they are aware of the issues that people are facing and they are trying to mitigate the crisis by providing drinking water to them through the crisis.
Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir Pandurang K Pole said that the administration is trying rope in other sources of water amid reduced water level in the river bodies to mitigate the crisis.
“Some of the areas of Srinagar receive water from Dachigam Nalha (19 MGD) as normally happens, it’s water has reduced (to 3-5 MGD), we are trying to get more from other sources. We have restored Water supply from Malshahi bagh and work on irrigation canal of Malshahi bagh is going on,” he told Excelsior.
Follow our WhatsApp channel