Srinagar | Syed-ul-Nisa Musvi | July 13: Irked over failure of Jal Shakti department the protests carried out by the residents of Ahmad Pora failed to knock the doors of the administration . Since hand pumps and wells are giving no support , Covid19 has only heightened the stress.

Barely few kilometres away from the Tehsil Pattan , the people living hard life are suffering from acute drinking water scarcity as the result people here have developed many gastroenterological issues.

These people haven’t had the time and luxury to worry about the Covid-19 pandemic. These villagers have a much bigger crises to deal with- water scarcity, which has peaked along with the Summer, like every year.

Water scarcity is common at most times of the year and reaches its peak in the summer months of April to June.
Most hand pumps in the region have stopped running water, and wells have dried up.

And Covid-19 has only heightened the stress — not in terms of infections, but due to the impact of the lockdown.
With inadequate water, local residents and social activists claim, the life seems to be suspended here in absence of safe drinking water this of these villagers has increased the stress on .

Even Tankers don’t come to the village , villagers are using the unsafe well water and this water too but is not free. The villagers are finding it difficult to pay for the water during this period of economic hardships, with many people having lost their jobs during the lockdown.

The local administration has totally failed to provide even water tankers as the summer is on boil , the children are the worst suffers to blow-out their thirst with the unsafe water.

Hand pumps running dry, no water in wells

Speaking to Wilayat Times , Anwar , a 30-year-old resident in Ahmad Pora village, said, “We have requested our concern department a number of times but always they came with a blind eye and a deaf ear , we don’t have even single drop of drinking water , thus forcing us to walk kilometres together to fetch some water for drinking” With no water in the drinking water in their villages, residents are forced to walk several kilometres looking for taps with running water.

Anwar said no potable water is supplied by tankers, which people are even ready to buy and drink. But that still is not possible here as the government has forsaken us.

Mumtaza 42, who lives in here , said she walks 2 km thrice a day with a pot to fetch water. “It’s not feasible to walk with three pots at a time, so multiple trips are required. This same situation has been prevailing here for the last several years.”

A woman walking back to her home after fetching water in Magam boarded a van to carry her water cans to her village said “ I’ve no other option to move Magam to fetch water as my village has been abandoned by the government even now governor administration failed to provide us the same”

Rahim bin Satar, 52, a local resident” said the village well has dried up completely and scarcity is at its peak.
“Quite often the person who brings the water from Magam has to pay the fare for the water pots it is to fetch with very difficult” he said”.

“Locals blame Politicians who after capturing votes become invisible ,“They need their seat hardly matters if we die struggling to get just drops to drink “ Governor – Administration wholly unmoved dehumanizing the people.

Rahim continued saying” Prime Minister Modi announced a plan to provide piped drinking water to every Indian household by 2024. Since his re-election , the government has promised that mitigating the country’s water crisis will be a top priority. But everything here looks converse we seems to have been forgotten by every officials.

“Clean drinking water has run out and households do not have enough water to wash clothes, clean dishes or flush the toilet. Hospitals are filling up with people suffering from dehydration – and gastrointestinal disease from drinking contaminated water

Many end up in hospital as a result – even cows refuse to drink the muddy and salty liquid that has been dredged from the bottom of exhausted lonesome well

“Over the last one-and-half months, there has been a 50% rise in the number of patients suffering from diarrhoea, gastritis etc,” said Sameer a. Medical practitioner.

Basharat a villager, says, “Most of the hand pumps in my village have gone dry. The water level has fallen to almost hundred feet . Getting water for our daily needs is a luxury. We rely on no one as ever our locals representatives have always tantalized us with the string of fake promises.

Rayees another resident points to a dry hand pump in front of his house to highlight the plight of the village . The local people say over 100 Tubewels have gone dry

“we are facing an acute water crisis since from ages. We want a permanent solution to this water crisis, which troubles us every day, We have to ride a cycle for about 1.5 km to get drinking water,” another villager, Nothing has changed in the last three decades, the villagers claim.

Roshan Khayal who is home on pandemic closure from NIT Sikkim where he is doing his B Tech, says he has been seeing this water crisis since his childhood days. The cattle also feel the heat, so much so that their owners give them water before taking them out into the fields.