Pipes laid but villagers still thirsty
Tribune News Service

Rajouri, March 20
Even as the state government is taking up more and more water supply schemes to provide clean drinking water in towns, it faces the hardest challenge to provide the same in rural areas. Thousand of people living in villages near here continue to suffer due to shortage of clean drinking water.

People of Gharisyan, Dhindian, Dhanore, Chowdhary Naad and Danidhar villages continue to suffer due to water shortage. Residents complained that even as the Water Supply Department (WSD) had fitted water pipes, water was hardly supplied. They said the department supplied water through tankers and that, too, after a gap of 3 to 4 days.

Women fill water from a tanker at Danidhar village near Rajouri. — Photo by writer

“The WSD hardly supplies water through the water pipes. It supplies water through tankers and that too in insufficient quantity,” complained Shama Begum of Chowdhary Naad, who along with her grand daughter was filling water in buckets and other utensils.

The WSD authorities said these villages were being supplied water through water pipes from Ujjain water source, but due to the huge population load between the water source and these villages, water was being pumped by villagers near the water source. The authorities said this was the reason that villages did not get an adequate supply of water.

Ashok Kumar Gupta, superintendent engineer, WSD, Rajouri, admitted that there was shortage of water in these villages. “We have proposed improvement of water supply projects in the town and its adjoining villages. These would cost Rs 31.70 crore and the project is awaiting approval,” he said.