Water crisis hits villages in Awantipora

AWANTIPORA — Amid scorching heat, residents of Noorpora (Pathgam) of Awantipora town in Pulwama district are facing acute shortage of drinking water for the past three months.

According to locals, every year the water scarcity turns acute during the Summer months.

Residents from Baba Mohallah, Shah Mohallah and Najar Mohallah complained that they have been facing the water shortage problem for many years. They said the supply lines were running dry for the past several months.

“We have to fetch water for drinking, cooking and other purposes from the ponds of village, far from residential area,” the locals said.

They said, “In Summers when the demand for water goes up, we are made to suffer. We have to fetch water from contaminated sources.”

They said in this present COVID-19 pandemic situation when people are advised to take good intake of water, wash and bath regularly, keep houses neat and clean, residents get water for 15 to 20 minutes during 24 hours.

They appealed concerned authorities of Jal Shakti Department, which was earlier known as Public Health Engineering (PHE) to redress the issue.

Jal Shakti Executive Engineer Awantipora, Riyaz Ahmad said there was shortage of water because people were misusing it. “Some people use tap water in gardens. But still I will look into it so that these villages don’t face shortage of water,” he said.