Kulgam’s Drangbal villagers protest water scarcity, urge govt to ‘ease our hardships’

Kulgam, June 29: Drangbal, a village just 1.5 kilometres from the sub-district Damhal Hanjipora in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district, held a protest on Saturday against the Jal Shakti Department, alleging that they have to fetch water from more than a mile away to quench their thirst.
Officials say the source of water supply has dried up in the area, and tanker services have been deployed.
Advocate Sarfaraz Ahmad, a local, told Rising Kashmir that they have been facing water scarcity for the last two years and have brought it to the attention of the concerned department, but no concrete response has been received yet.
“Our women face significant hardships fetching water from Damhal or Adijan, which is around 1.5 kilometres away from Drangbal,” he said, adding that currently, they do not have any water supply from pipes.
“We appeal to the authorities to look into this and ease our hardships as it has been a long time now. They should find an alternative and connect us with any scheme so that we get relief from water scarcity,” Sarfaraz added.
Zahid Ahmad, Tehsildar Damhal Hanjipora, said the village consists of about 50 households and that the main source of supply has dried up. “We have supplied tankers to the village and are looking to tap into a nearby scheme to supply water on an hourly basis until their own scheme is operational,” he said.
Executive Engineer (EXN), Kulgam, Er Nawaz Ahmad said the village is a water-scarce area, and they have deployed tankers there.
Nawaz said the Jal Shakti scheme under JJM is complete from Service Reservoir (SR) downwards, but raw water will take around 20 more days to become available. “We are looking to provide interim relief by connecting this scheme to a nearby water source,” he added.