Baramulla, July 26: The residents of Rahmaniya colony and TawheedabadTarzoo of Sopore town in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district are up in arms against the Jal Shakti department for failing to provide drinking water supply to them.

The locality of Rahmaniya colony, located in the outskirts of main town Sopore, has been facing acute water crisis for the past four years. 

The residents said that the women and children of the village are forced to walk miles every day in these hot and humid conditions to fetch safe drinking water. 

The distraught locals said that they have notified the administration and the Jal Shakti department several times over these years about the acute water shortage. However, no help has been forthcoming so far.

WaheedBano, a local, said that the authorities in the department have been pushing them to face immense hardships due to acute shortage of drinking water for years. 

“The Jal Shakti department and local administration is ignoring our plights. The females of this area don’t want to protest and face the camera. We are from good families but when it comes to survival, there is no option but to hit the streets. How can our administration justify that women are fetching drinking water from nearby localities in the 21st century and that too by foot,” she added. 

Another protesting lady, Shameema told Rising Kashmir that the womenfolk of the area are being forced to walk miles to fetch water.

“Our locality receives drinking water through a half an inch supply pipeline but that doesn’t suffice. We have time and again appealed to the department for establishing a better pipeline through the area so that every household can receive water properly. Instead of finding a viable solution, the Jal Shakti department is delivering water through a tanker once a week and that too isn’t enough,” Shameema added. 

She said that the authorities are ignoring them on all fronts.

 

“Despite repeated assurances and promises, the department has failed to provide adequate drinking water to the residents here,” she added. 

The residents have demanded immediate redressal of their grievances.

“The worthy Deputy Commissioner of the district is a woman, so we request Dr.SehrishAsgar to redress our issues at an earliest, as she only can understand our problem. I have two kids at home and while fetching water from other localities, I have to keep my children locked inside the home. It is unfortunate that the department claimed to fix a new pipeline, which would provide water to the whole area soon but all the assurances turned out to be false promises,” YasmeenaBano, another resident, told Rising Kashmir. 

The residents appealed to the Jal Shakti department to redress their issue at an earliest so that they won’t be facing any problems in near future.

Similarly, the residents of TawheedabadTarzoo in Sopore said that from last six years they have been requesting the Jal Shakti department to establish a proper water supply pipeline in the area but their demands aren’t met seriously.

Meanwhile an official of Jal Shakti department in Sopore said that a new pipeline has been approved for the SoporeZainageer area years back but due to certain issues the scheme has been put in languishing projects. 

Executive Engineer Jal Shakti Ramesh Pal Sharma said that the issue of water scarcity in Sopore will be redressed at an earliest. 

“We have invited the contractors for the project but till date we have not recieved any response. We will issue the tenders once again and hopefully will redress the issue at an earliest,” Ramesh told Rising Kashmir.

 

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Originally Appeared Here