Qazigund village faces drinking water crisis
Anantnag: Accusing the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department for ignoring their plight, the residents of Khan Mohalla Cheki-Budwani area of Qazigundo in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district have demanded immediate redressal of their grievances.
The residents told ‘Kashmir Vision’ that they are facing acute shortage of drinking water since the last five years but no attention is being given towards the serious issue.
They said that five years back the water supply scheme that was providing water to the area was stopped as the water showed excess quantity of iron.
“Since then we are forced to consume contaminated water that we procure from a local nallah,” the residents said.
“Our village is just two km away from Gate way of Kashmir Qazigund. The local spring at Panzath even provides water to around 60 villages but our village has been deprived of this facility,” they said.
“The PHE department has failed to make an alternative arrangement to provide potable water to the residents,” they added.
They appealed concerned authorities to ensure proper and immediate water supply to the area so that the water woes faced by the people would end.
The residents added that officials of PHE department have ignored them on all fronts and people are forced to drink contaminated water due to which locals are often suffering from water borne diseases.
When contacted Executive Engineer PHE Division Qazigund, Ghulam Nabi Bhat said due to the excessive rate of iron found in the water tank, the authorities had partially stopped the water supply for the said village.
“We have brought this issue into the notice of higher authorities and new supply scheme has been approved recently. The tenders for the same will be floated very soon and work will be also started at an earliest,” he said.
He also said that we will increase water tanker supply to the area so that they will not face any inconvenience till new water supply scheme becomes functional.
Jahangeer Ganaie
