MANSEHRA: The residents of Chum Gutuno village of Shungaldar union council in Torghar district have complained about an acute water shortage saying the only source of drinking water has dried up.

“We [villagers] rely on a large well for water but since it has dried up, we, especially our women family members, have to fetch water from far-off areas while keeping fasting,” elder Aziz Wahab told reporters on Monday.

Accompanying a group of locals, he said his mountainous village didn’t have basic facilities of life and repeated requests to the district development advisory committee headed by MPA Laiq Mohammad Khan for the launch of another water scheme fell on deaf ears.

“The well was dug up the well 48 feet deeper for water at the cost of Rs1 million collected by the locals, but the well is still without sufficient water for us [villagers],” he said.

The elder said the administration and district advisory committee should allocate funds to address water shortage.

He said the families didn’t encourage young female members to go to school and rather, forced them into fetching water from far-off areas for themselves and their cattle.

CONTEST: A woman won a naat khwani competition organised here on Monday for the people with disabilities from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

NGO Right to Live, which works for visually-impaired people, held the event with 17 men and women participating in it.

The panel of judges declared Saba Pervez of Abbottabad district the winner, Ali Adil of Chakwal district the first runner-up and Zainab Noor of Abbottabad district the second runner-up.

Mohammad Bilal, a visually-impaired person and Right to Live director, said the event had been held for seven years to encourage the people with disabilities to exhibit their talents.

He complained that the district had no school for such people.

The director called for the early establishment of a school for visually-challenged children for Mansehra as well as neighbouring Battagram, Torghar and Upper Kohistan, Kolai-Palas and Lower Kohistan districts.

He also demanded jobs in public sector organisations for people with disabilities against the two per cent quota.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2022