Villagers rue water shortage 
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Darhal (Rajouri), July 7
Rasheeda Begum (20), a housewife walks down to Saaj (4 km from her native Nakka Nadian village) almost every day to get a bucket of water. Her village is supplied adequate quantity of drinking water in government records, but practically not enough water for even drinking purpose is provided.
The tale of thousands of people living in far-flung areas of Darhal tehsil like Tann, Nangwal and Khetaan is not different since the government’s claim of providing drinking water in every far-flung village is not holding true on ground.
Rasheeda said, “Though water pipes have been laid here for the past 15-20 years, no water is supplied through these pipes. Since there is no alternate source of water here, we have to get water from the Saaj spring”. However, she says, it is not easy to get the water even at Saaj since there is a heavy rush coming to get water and sometimes it even takes hours together to get water from the spring. “Water is needed for almost every domestic activity including, cooking and washing.Besides, we have to give water to cattle also. But since the Water Supply Department has failed in supplying water (the department supplies water only once in a month, that too for 10 minutes), we are facing a lot of problems”, rues Rasheeda.
Muhammad Shaukat (25), a farmer of the adjoining Khetaan village, echoes a bitter experience with the department. “Since I am a farmer, I need water for almost every farming activity. But since there is no water for domestic activity, farming here is a difficult job”, he says.
Assistant executive engineer Rajouri(Headquarters) Abdul Qayoom admitted water shortage in these villages. “I acknowledge that there is water shortage in these areas. We have proposed schemes under the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme and soon the problem will be solved”, he claimed.