Many villages deprived of drinking water in Pulwama

PULWAMA — The people of Zadoora, a village about 10 kilometres from district headquarters in Pulwama, have to travel many kilometres to fetch clean water for drinking from a spring.

Although, a water storage tank was built many years ago in the adjoining villages from where drinking water is being supplied to many areas, no filtration plant has been built for this water tank even after many years. As a result, these people are supplied with contaminated water, which is not potable.

In these villages, water is supplied from a river and this water poses a risk of disease outbreak in the area.

Though the people of these villages have repeatedly appealed to the Jal Shakti Department to set up a filtration plant there, the Department has so far made only promises and nothing has been done on the ground.

Land was also given to the Jal Shakti Department for construction of water reservoir in which there was no need to install water filtration plant, however, it was not constructed after many years, due to which the concerned population is still deprived of clean drinking water.

In this regard, Bashir Ahmed, a local resident, said that polluted water is being supplied in their area due to which there is a danger of outbreak of diseases in the area. He appealed to the administration to construct the water reservoir as soon as possible to provide clean drinking water to the area.

Joginder Singh Bali, AEE Pulwama, Jal Shakti Department, said that a second water reservoir would be constructed in the area soon and work on it would start soon. He assured that the Department is duty-bound to supply potable water to each household for which efforts are being made.

It is noteworthy to mention that the Central government has planned to provide tap water to every household by 2024 under its ambitious flagship scheme Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). However, there are still many villages in the valley of Kashmir, including in Pulwama district, where people are longing for clean drinking water even after hundreds of assets – built at a cost of crores of rupees – are useless.