Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Jun 17: The residents of Arigam village in Tral hamlet of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district are facing scarcity of potable water since the last several years.
The residents of the village said that they are getting highly contaminated water from the existing water supply and after hectic efforts a new water supply scheme was approved for the area in 2018.
Locals said that they are getting water directly from the local water scheme without any filtration due to which the water they get is highly contaminated.
They said that a new scheme in the area was approved three years ago but it is nowhere on the ground. Ishfaq Gul, a local resident, said that they are forced to drink contaminated water and they are forced to go for kilometres to fetch water from a spring from main town Tral.
He said that they have brought this issue in notice of higher ups several times but to no avail.
Locals requested concerned authorities to look into the matter at an earliest and take immediate steps for providing potable water to the area.
An official of the department while acknowledging that there is shortage of potable drinking water in the area and a new scheme was approved three years ago.
He said that first nobody provided land for the new scheme and later when land was identified and a well was dug but it collapsed too. He said that later there was land dispute and now new site has been identified and construction of well will start soon as it at tendering stage
Executive Engineer Ground Water Division Srinagar Tariq Ahmad, assured that work on new well will start soon as it is tendering stage.
