Bandipora Diary

Potable water remains unavailable in Gurez village

As the sun rises high up in the sky, scores of women make a beeline in Chakwali village of Gurez, holding water pots on their heads to fetch drinking water.  Amid freezing temperatures, the women reach a nearby stream, frozen with chilled water flowing underneath.  They take turns breaking the ice and, when the water is accessible, they take turns filling their utensils.

This is not a winter problem, but they have been doing it for the last two months as the Jal Shakti or the erstwhile PHE department has failed to repair or install new pipes to carry water to the villagers, locals complain.

"We requested the department many times to repair the broken pipes, but no one seemed to pay any heed," Abdul Samad Lone, a villager, shared.

Even though the tradition of fetching water from the stream is old, the villagers had been receiving potable water intermittently for the last decade. This time it has been almost three months, the villagers have no potable water.  The problem has compounded during the winter as Gurez witnesses extreme sub-zero temperatures. It becomes tougher during snow when villages like Chakwali record almost 12 feet of snow, however that has not been the case yet, except in November.

"To have some comfort, we wanted the department to fix the issue, even if temporarily. We would return the pipes immediately after winter ends," another villager, Showkat Ahmad, said.

He said the department was not utilising its resources to develop the infrastructure, "even though they have received enough supplies."  On Sunday, the women, like every day, walked to fetch water but this time they shouted slogans against the department and local officers, denouncing how they were being put through immeasurable challenges when other parts of the country were developing digitally.

The anger has been brewing for the last two months. In November, the villagers also protested. Nisar Ahmad Lone, a local political activist, said, "There seems to be no correspondence. Villagers are suffering very badly."  "Where is digital India here?" Showkat asked, adding that he had a hand-folded request to local authorities, especially to officials of the Jal Shakti department and sub-divisional magistrate, to resolve the genuine grievance.

Madwan village lacks basic amenities

The Madwan villagers in Hajin of Sumbal subdivision in north Kashmir's Bandipora district are decrying the lack of basic amenities in their village.   The villagers of the Eidgah Pora locality on Sunday said that they have issues related to a lack of drinking water, electricity and roads.

"No one bothers to come here or listen to our grievances. We have been left out in the cold," a middle-aged villager, Salem Ahmad Lone, said.  "We don't have water, and we don't even have electricity. The roads here are a mess and non-motorable," Lone said.

Notably, the Madwan villagers from the locality have raised grievances regularly in terms of water shortage, lack of electricity and other developments.   "We have been voting for the last 30 years, and every politician reached us promising  development, but it is still a dream for us, even when we had been voting in their favour," another woman, Shareefa Begum, said.

Another woman seconded Begum and asked, despite regular protests and representations to the officials concerned, "If it is not bearing any fruit, tell us for the sake of God, where we shall go?"

Begum said that they have to regularly walk distances to fetch water from the streams and that electricity often remains cut off.

"Each day is passing like hell and then entering it again the next day. Our children have to study under candlelight each day."

"We demand regular water supply and electricity," the women said, asking the concerned officials to resolve grievances on priority.