MANSEHRA: The residents of Kamila Bazaar area and its outskirts in Upper Kohistan district have complained about a serious shortage of drinking water.

Leading a group of people, Maulana Waliullah Tohidi told reporters that the public health engineering department had reduced water supply from four hours to 30 minutes daily citing shortages as the reason and thus, causing a severe water crisis.

He complained that the area received water from a scheme executed in 1980 but that supply didn’t meet its needs.

Mr Tohidi also resented illegal water connections and theft.

Residents blame reduced water supply for issue

He insisted that the district administration and public health engineering department didn’t take measures to address water shortage.

“It is unfortunate that the people don’t have drinking water during the month of fasting [Ramazan] as neither the district administration nor the public health engineering department is taking serious measures to address this issue,” he said.

Another resident, Mir Ghulamullah, insisted that water theft was a major reason for shortage in Kamila area as the residents had illegal connections to disrupt supply.

He said women couldn’t fetch water from the nearby streams while fasting, so the administration and public health engineering department should ensure smooth water supply for three hours daily.

Resident Obaidullah said the people had illegally got water from the main pipeline, so illegal connections should immediately be removed to ensure smooth water supply to the area.

He warned if the matter wasn’t resolved, the people would stage street protests.

TWO KILLED: Two people were killed in separate incidents here on Thursday.

Husnain Jan, 17, drowned in the Kunhar River in Garhi Habibullah area while swimming. However, his body was not found.

Amir Khadim of Rescue 1122 said search for the body was under way. He said high flows in the river hampered the search operation.

In another incident, resident Mohammad Dildar suffered critical injuries when his motorcycle rammed into another in Dodial area.

He was shifted to the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital, whose doctors pronounced him dead.

Also, two people suffered critical injuries as the motorcycle they rode was hit by a tractor-trolley on the Karakoram Highway near here.

The residents shifted him to the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital, whose doctors referred them to Ayub Medical Complex, Abbottabad.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2022