CHAKWAL: Over a hundred tubewells in Chakwal district are no longer operational, as the department concerned does not have enough employees to run them.

Till 1985, residents of the Doray Village, located some 20km from Chakwal City, did not have drinking water and women of the village had to fetch water from far off wells. In 1985 a tubewell was established in the village to supply water to the residents.

“The establishment of a tubewell came as a blessing for the villagers,” said Riaz Butt, a notable of the village. But locals could only make use of the tubewell for five or six years,

“The tubewell was left for the villagers to look after who did not have the expertise to run them nor did they have a proper system for collecting monthly electricity bills,” Mr Butt said.

Like the one in the Doray Village, some 130 tubewells have been abandoned across the district. According to an official, Rs727.8 million were spent on the establishment of these tubewells and an estimated Rs1647 million are needed to rehabilitate 89 of these.

The rest are being managed by locals. According to officials, such a large amount is required for the revival of these schemes because the prices of material including cement, pipes and bricks are now higher than what they were more than a decade ago when the project was started.

A request for the release of funds was sent to the concerned authorities by the Public Health and Engineering Department’s executive engineer which only released funds for five of the schemes.

The construction of tubewells in 131 villages in the Chakwal district began in 1985 and continued during the tenure of former chief minister Pervez Elahi.

“Many tubewells were built through grants from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank,” an official said.

He explained that no mechanisms were adopted for operating these schemes and that the Public Health and Engineering Department was unable to run them due to shortage of man power.

After spending millions of rupees for their establishment, the tubewells were handed over to villagers to operate.

“The tubewell in my village was only operational for two years as many villagers did not deposit their monthly electricity bills,” said Nasir Iqbal, a resident of the Thanil Fatohi Village.

The locals who were tasked with operating the tubewells did not have the power to collect money for electricity bills or to disconnect water connections to those who did not pay their bills. After they were abandoned, the pipes and other infrastructure attached to the wells were also stolen by the villagers.

The tubewells in the native villages of MPAs Zulfiqar Ali Khan and Malik Shahryar Awan, that in the village of MNA Tahir Iqbal and former MNA Ayaz Amir have also been abandoned.

When asked Public Health and Engineering Department’s Executive Engineer Nadeem Anwar said the wells will be made operational again.

“We are working on the issue and funds have for reviving five of the abandoned schemes have been received,” he said, adding that a number of water supply projects will be initiated in Chakwal in the next financial year.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2017