ABBOTTABAD/MINGORA: The people of Abbottabad have been facing shortage of drinking water and the situation is worsening day by day as water is released to city areas after every four to five days.

The areas hit hard by water shortage include upper and lower Kehal, Kunj, Malikpura, Karimpura, Salhad, Banda Jalal Khan and other main city localities.

The Water and Sanitation Authority, tehsil municipal administration and Public Health Engineering Department are all shifting responsibility to each other and despite the strict directive by the Peshawar High Court Abbottabad circuit bench these agencies are not giving attention to one of the main problems of the city.

Till date three major water supply projects have been completed, but the situation could not be improved.

About two years ago a water supply scheme costing Rs4.5 billion was completed with the help of Japanese government through JICA and later additional funds of Rs40 million were provided by the provincial government for replacement of water supply lines in the city. Also, a new source of water supply at Jandar Bari is being attached and work is underway, which will cost over Rs45 million.

The provincial government has also released funds for making 21 tube wells of the city operational and for laying new pipelines. However, sources said that the contractor after laying pipeline in the main storage area had left the work incomplete.

Speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday, tehsil naib nazim Sardar Shuja Ahmed and other councillors said that all the machinery and over 300 employees of TMA had been handed over to WASA, but nothing had been done by the department for resolution of the people’s issues.

They blamed the past and present MPAs of Abbottabad for the failure of the “Gravity Water Scheme”. They said that the scheme was basically for the city’s union councils, but it was expanded to the entire city. They said that the entire supply system was being run in disorderly manner where the TMA and water supply departments were at loggerheads. In Mingora, prolonged power loadshedding has led to the closure of 52 tube-wells, causing problems for 800,000 population in the city and its suberbs.

Owing to the prolonged and unscheduled power loadshedding in Swat acute water scarcity surfaced in Mingora and its suburbs.

Power loadshedding in Mingora exceeded 16 hours while in the rural areas it reached up to 20 hours.

The power outages also brought to standstill the business activities in the fasting month. “Our water supply line has been suspended for last eight days and when we contact the municipal administration office, the officials say it is because of prolonged power outages,” said Naeem Khan, a resident of Rang Mohallah.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2017