GILGIT, July 22: The residents of Gilgit are facing acute shortage of water as the pipelines of the ill-planned greater water supply project of the Water and Sanitation Agency have been blocked at many places with sand and other materials.

“The water supply lines are blocked and the entire area is without water”, Irshad from the Kashrote locality told Dawn on Friday.

The greater water supply project, which consumed millions of rupees and completed a couple of years back was meant to meet water requirements of consumers in the capital city but residents are forced to buy water for drinking and other purposes.

Moreover, the residents have no one to listen to their problems as the Wasa seems unmoved to rectify the faults in the water supply system.

The affected people complained that influential people have had their water supply uninterrupted as pipeline carrying water to such households were of quite wide diameter while a large chunk of population was fed with water from pipelines of very narrow diameter, which often got filled with sand and other sticky material.

“The special people are supplied water by a six-inch diameter pipe which is also used to irrigate farmlands,” complained another resident.

The suspension of water supply to Kashrote and Sonikote areas has become a permanent phenomenon.

No Wasa official was available for comment which this reporter tried to contact them.

WILDLIFE: Abdul Hamid Khan, the lawmaker from remote Astore region, on Friday demanded of the government to protect wildlife as well as flora and fauna from getting extinct in the area.

Taking floor on the third day of the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly on Friday Mr Hamid said Astore's markhor was being hunted illegally by the influential people and the wild life department was turning a blind eye to the issue.

Mr Hamid further informed the house some unscrupulous elements were also destroying the flora and fauna of the region.

The Chief Minister Syed Mehdi Shah assured the lawmaker that the secretary of the concerned department would be summoned in his office to inquire about the matter.

Mr Hamid also complained about lack of health facilities in Astore, saying, doctors seldom visited hospitals in his constituency.

Meanwhile, the GBLA also discussed the issue of compensation for the residents of Atta Abad and other points of Hunza which were inundated by the artificial lake.

The chief minister announced Rs20 million for payment of school fee of the students from the calamity hit areas.