Residents of Anderwan village of Anantnag rue lack of drinking water facilities

Srinagar, June 30: The residents of the Anderwan village of District Anantnag have expressed strong resentment against  the Jal Shakti Department for failing to provide them potable drinking water facilities.

The water  scarcity  is  leading to significant distress and inconvenience .

Residents said that due to the  hardships of water  scarcity in their area, they have to take long distance routes twice in a day  to get pitchers of water in order  to meet the basic requirements of cooking and drinking .

"We have been deprived of the very basic need of water and despite repeated pleas no one is paying attention towards our grievances ,” Showkat Ahmad Chichi said.

“Acute shortage of water in our area impacts  our women  adversely. They have to travel miles  in order to fetch water, our village has never seen water despite so much advancement in the Jal Jeevan Mission plan. Availability of water in our area is still a dream,” he said.

“The water tankers from the Jal Shakti department arrive every week providing 100 litres of water to each household. It is insufficient to fulfill our needs ,” said Zareena Bano, another resident of Anderwan village .

“We hope that our voices will  be heard and that our miseries will finally end,” she added.

The residents have urged the administration to pay attention towards their grievances.

“I acknowledge that  the Anderwan village has been suffering from  the acute shortage  of water for decades. However efforts have been taken tirelessly to work on the Anderwan Sagam Scheme. This scheme is launched under the Jal Jeevan Mission(JJM ) which is a Double stage lift scheme. We have already  completed one stage of it  and are currently working on the other stage. I assure that within a month it will be completed and water will be restored ,” said Feroz Ahmad Mallah , Assistant Executive Engineer (AAE) in Jal Shakti Department Sub Division Kokernag.

BY Shaheen Mursal