Srinagar, Aug 26: Many areas of the summer capital are reeling under immense shortage of potable drinking water causing huge inconvenience to the inhabitants. 
 Badly hit areas include Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar, Shivpora B, Baghat, Nowgam, Habba Kadal, Soura, Safa Kadal and Eidgah.
 Hundreds of people could be seen waiting in queues to receive water from tankers dispatched by the Public Health Engineering Department to many areas of the City including Shahr-e-Khas. However, people say that the tankers are not able to cater to huge demand for drinking water.
 Inhabitants of Baghat alleged that they are devoid of water supply from last four weeks and the district administration has failed to address the problem.
 “Our colony gets water supply for maximum two hours in morning and that too remains unscheduled. For rest of the day, our taps remain dry” said Sameer Ahmad of Baghat. “We would be forced to take to streets if authorities did not restore water supply at the earliest. They should be ashamed of the fact that people are suffering immensely due to water shortage in Ramadhan,” another local said.
 The residents of Rajbagh and Jawahar Nagar said taps were running almost dry for past few days. “The pressure is so low that it takes hours to fill a bucket,” said Mushtaq Ahmad of Rajbagh. “Sometimes, we don’t have water for ablution than to talk of washing and other purposes,” Mushtaq added.
 A group of housewives from Rajbagh said that pressure of water is so low that they are not able to wash household items even on the eve of Shab-i-Qadr and Eid. Similar complaints were received from other localities in the City.
 The people of Habba Kadal said due to scarcity of water, they are facing hardships in doing their daily activities. “We are facing tremendous hardships particularly during the Sehri and Iftaar time due to shortage of water” said Mohammad Haneif of Habba Kadal.
 When contacted, the PHE authorities said the natural sources of water in Nishat filtration plant and Dachigam Nallah which provide water to many areas of Srinagar city, have dried up due to increase in temperature.
 “The scarcity is only due to rise of mercury which has depleted Nishat plant and Dachigam Nallah to a greater extent.
 Once the irrigation period in Dachigam Nallah is over, the water crisis will be over,” Executive Engineer PHE Srinagar Shafat Hussain Kadeemi told Greater Kashmir.
 Besides rationalizing water supply to the affected areas, the PHE has also pressed into service water tankers.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 26 Aug 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 26 Aug 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 27 Aug 2011 00:00:00 IST