Shopian, Mar 14: The people of Shopian have accused the Public Health Engineering department of providing them contaminated water.
 According to the locals, the water supplied to the Shopian district is highly contaminated as sewerage outlets and drains of upper areas open in the water supply channel of Rambi Ara.
 “The drinking water, which is being supplied to us from Bohri Halan dump tank, comes from the Nallah Rambi Ara,” the residents said.
 They said the water inside the channel gets contaminated in the upper areas of Bohri Halan, Hurpra and Dhochan. “The flow of most of the lavatories and drains opens up inside the channel thereby polluting the water to the hilt,” Traders Federation Shopian, President, Mukhtar Ahmad told Greater Kashmir, adding the water also emanates foul smell due to the presence of faeces. 
 “The contaminated water of the Nallah flows towards the Khodpora tank,” he said adding the water is being later supplied to the Shopian and many other areas without proper filtration. 
 According to the locals, scores of people including women and children have died due to the outbreak of waterborne disease following consumption of the contaminated water. “There has been outbreak of Hepatitis and Jaundice in several villages of the district many a times,” the residents said adding that there had also been outbreak of the deadly Hepatitis-E in a village. 
 The officials of the PHE department have completely failed to check the pollution in the Nallah. The inhabitants said that they apprised the senior functionaries of the PHE department and district administration about the outbreak of diseases due to the consumption of contaminated water. “However, our repeated pleas have fallen to deaf ears as the officials haven’t done anything substantial in this regard,” the locals said adding the people were still being provided contaminated water by the authorities and the district administration had failed to plug the sewerage and drain outlets dropping sewage inside the canal.   
 “The officials should demolish the lavatories constructed on the Nallah banks to stop the flow of sewerage into the water,” the locals added. 
 The authorities blame the locals for polluting the water source saying that the PHE department was supplying water after proper filtration and treatment.
 “The water is contaminated in upper areas, but it is the locals who are polluting it. The outlets of their lavatories and drains open in the canal due to which the water gets extremely polluted,” PHE Division Shopian/Pulwama, Executive Engineer Ashok Pradhan told Greater Kashmir,  adding the people of upper areas already know that the water was being used by the people of Shopian for drinking purposes.
 “We are however, filtering the water at Bohri Halan and Khodpora, which is being later supplied to the households. The accusations against PHE that it is supplying contaminated water to the people are baseless and far from the truth,” Executive Engineer said.
 He said the department was trying to provide uninterrupted water supply to the district.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 14 Mar 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:00 IST