B’Pora: The Argam villagers of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district are complaining of a ‘crisis’ like situation as the large population is left without pure drinking water due to the alleged lackadaisical attitude of Jal Shakti department.
Claiming that they are forced to utilise unfiltered water for drinking purposes from a nearby stream as the regular supply water is not available despite the claims of the department of supplying pure drinking water to the people.
The acute water shortage has mainly hit Bhat Mohalla and adjoining localities of the village, who have threatened to launch an agitation if their demands were not fulfilled in time by the Jal Shakti department. “We have acute shortage of water and are being forced to utilise contaminated water. Despite repeated pleas to the officials of the PHE department, nothing has happened so far,” the locals said.
Locals said due to the non-availability of drinking water, they have been suffering immensely for the last five months. “The women have to fetch water other neighboring localities,” they added.
Locals say the Jal Shakti department should have made water available to mitigate the sufferings of the people. “The department is doing nothing due to which the problems of the people have compounded,” the residents added. “If the problem persists we would have no option but to launch an agitation”, they said. Executive Engineer of Jal Shakti department, Abdul Khaliq assured that he will look into the complaints of residents.
