WATER WOES | Bandipora village residents protest non-availability of drinking water

Bandipora, Oct 13: The residents of the uphill Quilmuqam village in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district are fuming over the non-availability of drinking water.

The residents, especially women, say they have to walk around 2 to 3 km every day to fetch water.

The women make a beeline in the morning, traversing the mountain terrain carrying water in utensils on their heads.

“How long are we going to do this?” a woman asked.

They said that the Department of Jal Shakti was least bothered by their pleas and was not resolving their issue of erratic potable water supply.

Dumping their utensils on Quilmuqam-Bandipora road, the women shouted slogans against the department’s failure to provide them with regular water supply.

“Earlier, we used to get regular water supply at specific time intervals, but the problem has now escalated and the erratic supply has become a daily affair,” they said.

Nasreena Begum, a female protester, said, “We have to walk 2 to 3 km to fetch water from a spring. Our taps have been running dry for long.”

“We have to foot the water bills despite not having a proper water supply,” she said. “Most of us are housewives. It takes us two to three hours every day or even more to fetch water as the spring is far from here,” another woman said.

“Despite pleas and inquiries, the officials always come up with excuses. Sometimes they say the motor is not working. Other times they say the water is not available in the tanks,” another protester said.