Waris Fayaz
Sopore, Mar 17: Residents of Zaingeer in north Kashmir’s Sopore have accused the Jal Shakhti department of providing them unfiltered drinking water from Marbal Nallah. They also said that the water filtration plant has been defunct for years.
Talking to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), locals alleged, “We are being forced to consume the raw water from the nallah whose source is polluted, thereby posing health risks. The heaps of garbage are a common scene on the banks of nallah. We use dirty water for years due to which several viral diseases break out here from time to time.”
Ghulam Mohi ud Din Kar, a senior citizen told KNO that every time it rains in the area, the open-source spring and the nallah get polluted and the locals are forced to use the contaminated water. “A water filtration plant at Hardshiva has never functioned. This useless filtration plant has been inaugurated several times by people affiliated with various political organisations; however it is good for nothing,” he said.
Instead of providing us with water from the Marbal Nallah, the department should work on Pahiwar Nallah which is far better than those from which the Zaingeer villages including Hardshiva, Shiva, Dooru, and Dangerpora are getting water supply, Kar added.
The residents have urged Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, Deputy Commissioner Baramulla and the concerned department to look into the matter.
Notably, days ago, a test report of the water sample came, which indicated that the supplied water supply to the residents is not suitable for drinking. People were advised to boil the water before consumption.
Meanwhile, despite repeated attempts, AEE Jal Shakhti (PHE), division Watlab could not be reached as the official didn’t receive phone calls from this correspondent—(KNO)
