Shopian, Feb 5: Hundreds of families in 20 villages of Shopian district are using snow for drinking water purposes due to non-availability of water from the last one month.
According to reports, the residents of villages including Tuldan, Kharwara, Landoora, Hajipora, Wasawhalan, Chak Saidpora, Nagi Sharan, Kanhama, Pahnoo, Trenz, Tarkawangam, Wihil, Chak Amshipora, Chak Shamsipora and dozens of other adjoining areas in Keller are facing hardships due to water shortage. “Due to the non-availability of drinking water, we have been suffering immensely from the last one month. The women have to fetch water from far off areas during these chilling weather conditions,” Shabir Ahmad of Tuldan told Greater Kashmir.
The residents said the taps and water supply lines have frozen in the area, but the concerned Public Health Engineering department was not even trying to make any alternate arrangements for providing the water to the people. “All the taps in at least 30 villages are completely frozen due to which there has been acute shortage of water,” Ghulam Rasool a local told Greater Kashmir, and accused the concerned department and the district administration of being indifferent towards the peoples grievances.
He said the people in these areas were now using snow for drinking. “There’s no other option that to boil the snow and use the water for consumption,” the locals said adding the people are seen collecting snow from orchards everyday.
According to them, the PHE department should have made the water available through tankers 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.
The district administration said that they had water tankers available with them, but couldn’t dispatch these to the affected areas due to slippery conditions. “Actually we have many water tankers, but due to the slippery conditions, we are unable to send them to the interior villages,” the District Development Commissioner, Shopian M S Sood told Greater Kashmir.
He said the administration was working on an augmentation proposal and very soon continuous water would be provided to more than 43 villages of the district.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 5 Feb 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 5 Feb 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 IST