Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, July 15: The fight against the COVID-19 gets tougher for the residents of many areas in Srinagar who are facing an acute shortage of water supply for the last six months as the authorities have failed to fix a breach in a major water canal that supplies water to these areas.
The water crisis arose after a breach occurred in Sind extension canal at Malshahibagh in the Ganderbal district in the first week of December. As a result, the water supply of over two lakh people got affected as the canal supplies water to three main treatment plants of Rangel, Shuhama, and Alasteng. The restoration work was supposed to get completed in two months but the canal remains incomplete even after six months.
The areas facing water shortage include Elahi Bagh, Gulab Bagh, Soura, Anchar, Nowshera, Lal Bazar, Alasteng, Shuhama, Habak, Zukra, Batpora, Hazratbal, Kashmir University, National Institute of Technology (NIT), Saderbal, Saida Kadal and some areas of Downtown Srinagar.
Nazir Ahmad Kumar, a 50-year-old resident of Batpora in Srinagar said for the last six months they are not receiving normal water supply. He said that they have been raising the issues with the concerned department, but nothing has happened so far. “The water supply we get is insufficient to cater to our demands. Nobody is listening to us in times of COVID-19, we are forced to deal with this water crisis,” he said.
Chief Engineer, Irrigation and Flood Control Department, Nissar Ahmad Kakro said the restoration work got delayed due to the pandemic and the canal would be made functional by 15 August. “We were supposed to complete the work in the months of May, but that could not be achieved because of the pandemic,” he said.
He said Public Health Engineering (PHE) department has made alternate arrangements to provide water supply to the affected areas. “They have placed parallel water pipes to bypass the breach portion. Water supply is being made available by PHE,” he said.
The residents, however, said the measures adopted by the administration to mitigate the problems are insufficient to cater to the daily water needs of people. “It takes us an eternity to fill our water tanks with the amount of water we receive through our taps. The water crisis has added to our woes in these trying times,” Abid Ahmad, a resident of Kawdara, said.
Repeated attempts to contact Chief Engineer, PHE, Abdul Wahid did not yield any result as he did not respond.
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