Sopore town faces severe water crisis

Sopore, Aug 2: Shortage of rainfall has lead to the persistent water scarcity in many areas of Sopore area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

Residents of the entire Sopore town have consistently complained about inadequate water supplies from the concerned department adding to their woes. As there is a severe shortage of drinking water, on which huge demonstrations were held against the Jal Shakti Department all around the town, residents of various localities here have accused the Jal Shakti department of supplying water for one and half hours only in 48 hours.

The people of this town are yearning for every single drop of water, although Sopore is currently being supplied with water from the Watlab and Shrakwara water schemes, but both the schemes supply water to only 60% population of the town.

The people of the town said “why are these schemes ineffective even after spending such a huge amount of money”. Now the people demand that the drinking water problem of Sopore town be solved immediately.

Regarding this, AEE Mushtaq Ahmad Wani of Jal Shakti Department Sopore said that due to continuous dry weather, there is severe water problem, while Sopore town needs 36 lakh gallons of water per day, but at this time only 1.6 million gallons of water isavailable, due to which “we have been forced to make further cuts in water supply.”

The existing water schemes in the town were established in the year 1971 when the population here was only 65 thousand, but at present, the population of Sopore is around 200,000.

The continuous drought is affecting the water supply from Watlab and Shrakwara water schemes to a great extent.

AEE Mushtaq Ahmad Wani further said that the department has 4 water tankers available for water supply, which supply water daily to those areas where tap water is still not available. In order to reduce the scarcity of water, the government has prepared a new water scheme for Sopore at a cost of Rs 69 crore and this new scheme will supply water to the entire Sopore town till the year 2040 , which will solve the problem of drinking water for the people of Sopore, officials said.

The AEE appealed to the public not to use drinking water for gardens, kitchen gardens, parks and also not to use water motors, otherwise “we will be forced to take legal action against them.”