Anantnag, Feb 11: Residents of Sursuna village in this south Kashmir’s Anantnag district are up in arms against the Jal Shakti Department for “failing” to provide potable water to the village “since 2014”.
The people of the village, which is near the national highway (NH-44) and comprises around 200 houses, told Rising Kashmir that they have “never seen” a proper water supply.
Umar Ahmad Khanday, a Lumbardar, said that initially, the village received water from its adjoining hamlet Shoul under the water supply scheme. “The scheme was then graded unsafe in 2014 as the high concentration of iron was found in it, which ultimately resulted in kidney stones among 90 percent of local residents,” he said.
Khanday said that over the past 9 years, the people receive a water tanker from the Jal Shakti Department after every two days to facilitate potable water in the area.
“How is it possible that a single water tanker which is being dispatched after every two days could satisfy the needs of the entire hamlet,” he questioned. “Whenever the tanker is being dispatched here, women have to wait for several hours to fetch water in buckets and other utensils.”
Maqbool Ahmad, another local, said the unavailability of drinking water has left the people of the village with no option but to use contaminated water. “Out of the total 200 households, only 30 percent households have access to tube wells which they use for bathing and washing purposes. 70 percent of the people don’t even have contaminated water for household necessities,” he said.
To fill this gap, the Jal Shakti Department sanctioned a filtration plant in 2018 that provided a sigh of relief to the residents. The process of work was started in 2020 but left halfway, locals said, adding that there has been no progress since then.
“We have been waiting since 2018 for the completion of the filtration project,” Abdul Rashid said. “We have been completely ignored by the administration. Our grievances are not being taken seriously. Despite repeated pleas to authorities, the Jal Shakti department has failed to address our grievances and turned deaf ear to our pleas.”
The villagers have not benefitted under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) project, Shahnawaz Ahmad, a student, said. “It is unfortunate and shameful that we are lacking drinking water facilities in the 21st century.”
Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) Bijbehara told Rising Kashmir that under the JKIDFC (Jammu & Kashmir Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation) scheme, a filtration plant was sanctioned to the village, and the work was started in 2020. However, the government issued a circular that all languishing programmes be shifted to the JJM project, he said.
“This scheme was also merged to JJM as it was sanctioned under the same programme,” the AEE said, adding, “We have sent a fresh proposal to the department for further course of action.”
Another official at the Jal Shakti Department acknowledged that water requirements for the village were not being met. “We have listed it under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) and hopefully the work under this project will start soon,” the official said.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta while conducting a virtual tour on Wednesday said that all programmes under JJM are set to see completion by June 2023.
Dr Mehta directed the concerned officials to expedite the process of tendering to all the components of each scheme and asked them to meet the deadlines without fail.
