Residents say, ‘supply of unfiltered water put their health at risk’,
Problem will be resolved soon: Executive engineer
Srinagar, Jul 17: Despite spending around 1.50 crore rupees to provide water filtration plant to the villages of upper Qaziabad Kralgund Handwara such as Ashipora, Budbug, Uttingro, Harveth, the department of Jal Shakti allegedly has so far failed to make the Budbug filtration plant operational.
Surprisingly as per the officials, the department has floated tenders for construction of a new filtration plant in the same area a year before, but the work could not be started till date.
According to the residents of these villages, the department is directly supplying unfiltered water to the local population in the area.
They said that in absence of a filtration plant, water from canals and streams is directly being supplied to them which is highly contaminated.
A local said that for the last 10 years, they have been forced to drink contaminated water.
They said that the years before the department had executed work on existing filtration plant budbug, but it never got operational.
“The Budbug filtration plant was set up several years before by the PHE Department. However, it developed a technical snag before it could have been started. The plant never got operational,” the locals claimed.
“Whenever it rains, the villages get more contaminated water, which poses a threat to people of getting infected with water-borne diseases,” they said.
The department has been apprised several times in the past. Residents said that they (authorities) always give assurances to people that the new filtration plant will be made operational soon, but to no avail.
Ghulam Hassan a resident of Ashipora said, they get the drinking water directly from a canal which is contaminated and can cause diseases.
“In the past many people were tested positive for some water-borne diseases and many of them had skin infections which is a serious concern,” Hassan said.
“We get direct water from canals and streams. The water is not tested which is a serious concern. Filtration plant is the basic facility but we have been neglected from such an important facility,” said another resident.
Residents urged the LG Manooj Sinha-led administration to direct the concerned department to make the filtration plant operational in the area at the earliest so that people cannot be forced to consume contaminated water.
When Executive Engineer Jal Shakti, Handwara, Bilal Ahmad was contacted, he assured that the problem will be resolved soon.
“We are aware that these villages are suffering due to non- availability of the filtration plant, but I assure you that the problem will be resolved soon,” he said.
He further added that under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), the department has floated fresh tenders for the construction of the new filtration plant and that the work will start soon.
He however said that the department was ensuring the safe drinking water to the residents of these villages.
The Executive engineer further added that the department routinely takes samples from consumer point and from water sources.
“We have given field testing kits to our field staff to do the testing and then report it and they report it,” he said. He said that the sample collectors of the department also take the samples on a regular basis in different areas and get it analyzed in district or sub-divisional testing labs.
