Residents walk 4 km to get water
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Darhal (Rajouri), August 4
Saima Begum (20) has to go to Saaj, a spring located at a distance of about 4 km from her native Nakka Nadian village, almost every day to get a bucket of water. Her village is being supplied adequate quantity of drinking water in government records, but in reality, there is not enough supply even for drinking purposes.

The tale of thousands of people living in the far-flung areas of Darhal tehsil like Badana, Nukka, Tann and Khetaan is no different since the government’s claim of providing potable water in remote villages does not hold much substance on ground.

Saima says, “Though supply pipes were laid here 15-20 years ago, no water is supplied through these pipes. Since there is no alternative source here, we have to get water from Saaj spring”.

And it is not easy to get water from Saaj since it remains crowded with people coming to get water and sometimes it even takes hours to get a bucket of water from the spring. “Water is needed for almost every domestic activity. But since the department concerned has failed to ensure the supply of water, we have to face a lot of problems. The department supplies water once in a month that too for 10 minutes,” rues Saima.

Muhammad Shafi (80), numberdar of Badana village, echoes similar views. “Since I am a farmer, I need water for almost every farming activity. But since there is not even enough water for domestic consumption, farming here is a difficult job,” he says.

“Now, I have dug up ditches for harvesting rainwater for using it for irrigation and for cattle. But water availability in these ditches depends on rains”. He further says villagers on several occasions approached the water supply department in the area, but with little response from the authorities.

A source in the department said, “There is water shortage in these areas, but it is not alarming as the villagers claim. The department has proposed water supply schemes under the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) and soon the problem would be solved,” the source said.