NAROWAL: Up to 10,000 people of the Hajiwala locality have been drinking dirty water for three years due to the failure of the filtration plant providing potable water to the locality.

Locals have criticised the district administration of Narowal over their failure to fix the plant.

The only water plant in Hajiwala village on Narowal-New Lahore Road was set up seven years ago.

The plant caters to the needs of 500 houses in Hajiwala village and more than 10,000 residents of Darianwala village.

Four years after the installation, the plant fell prey to the negligence of the administration which stopped replacing filters. Taps are also missing.

Locals Mohammad Aslam and Barkat Ali said since the breakdown of the plant, children and women have been suffering from stomach, liver, kidney and other diseases.

They claimed almost every house in the village had a person with waterborne ailments.

The locals said they had forwarded several requests to the district administration for the fixing of the plant problem but to no avail.

Some families in the village fetch water from the Narowal city filtration plant but 90 per cent of the villagers have been forced to drink substandard and unhealthy water.

Citizens demanded immediate notice from Chief Minister Usman Buzdar into the issue.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Zaheer Hassan, who holds the municipality charge as well, said he would get the repair estimates and would manage the plant functional within days.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2021