TAXILA: The dream of over 20,000 villagers of the remote Thatta Khalil village of Taxila to get clean and affordable water is near fulfillment thanks to a local social figure and philanthropist.

A project worth Rs36.449 million was approved by the Punjab government in Jan 2013 and was to be completed in three years but only building and structure could be completed on an 18 marla land donated by a villager.

Almost 10 years passed since the initiation of the project and only 70 per cent of the work could be completed and the rest, including power supply and installation of transformers, is yet to be done. Those who can afford boring have arranged their own water supply while the rest of the population has no option but to fetch water from different sources.

“Although we have donated free land for the execution of the water supply scheme, the fate of the project still hangs in the balance,” said Ghulam Fareed, a local resident.

Mohammad Zaheer, another resident of area, said they were disappointed with the bureaucratic attitude of government officials and performance of the elected representatives.

“Water is the basic necessity of life and its availability should be ensured at all cost, but successive governments kept this public welfare project on the back burner ignoring the problem of thousands of people of poor and backward areas,” said Asif Malik, a resident of the area.

Now social figure and philanthropist Malik Sohail Akhtar has taken the responsibility of getting the water project completed.

When contacted, Mr Akhter said it was disappointing that women and girls of the area fetched water twice a day from far off locations even in today’s modern era. He said being son of the soil he had decided to work for resolution of public issues in the backward area through his personal resources.

He said he had provided necessary infrastructure, electric equipment and other resources to supply clean drinking water to the inhabitants of the area.

It may be noted that a study was undertaken to categorise the suitability of groundwater in Taxila by soil fertility survey and testing institute at Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi. During the study, a total of 628 water samples were collected from nine union councils in Taxila, analysed and categorised according to the suitability criteria of water quality evaluation.

Sixty-six per cent of the samples were fit, 21 per cent were marginally fit and 13 per cent were found unfit. In the majority of the union councils, water was fit for irrigation except Thatta Khalil where 20 per cent of water samples were unfit due to higher electrical conductivity (EC). Residual sodium carbonate (RSC) and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) were also higher in water samples.

Dr Syed Asad Ali, President Pakistan Academy of Family Physicians Taxila chapter, said sources of drinking water both surface and underground had become contaminated with different kinds of bacteria, toxic metals and pesticides in the area. He said according to the experts, contamination of drinking water may result in stomach ailments like diarrhoea and vomiting besides hepatitis and skin diseases.

Munnaza Peerzada, President of local NGO which is working on human and infrastructure development in the area while commenting over making the distant dream of making functional the 10 years old water supply scheme to provide free and clean water supply to the masses of remote and far flung area true has said that in a country where according to a UN report 46 percent of the population is devoid of clean drinking water, a great initiative to provide clean water at the every person doorstep is an innovative and praiseworthy initiative.“Children being more prone to diseases are the ones most affected by contaminated water,” she pointed out, before adding that the unhygienic water would further worsen the situation in the area.

When contacted, Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) Subdivisional Officer (SDO) Ghulam Mohammad said the project was launched in 2013 under the annual development plan (ADP) and funds were allocated by the area member Punjab assembly. He attributed the delay in the project to non-provision of necessary funds.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2024