BATKHELA, Nov 16: The residents of Batkhela have expressed satisfaction over beginning of work on the much-awaited gravity based water supply scheme in Malakand protected area.
It is the second largest water supply project of its kind in the country after Karachi.
Talking to Dawn, people of different walks of life appreciated the efforts of Provincial Minister for Finance Mohammad Humayun Khan for fulfilling the longstanding demand of over 60,000 residents of the three union councils of Batkhela.
Amin Khan, the executive engineer of public health department, said that the project would be completed till 2014 at a cost of Rs631.594 million. It would provide potable water to 70 per cent population of Batkhela without utilisation of electricity.
Mr Khan said that in the first phase, 23 kilometres pipeline would be laid from Swat Samozai Gammon Pul to Batkhela. Work on the first phase was already in progress, he added.
The official said that in the second phase, five water tanks would be set up for storage and filtration, four of them at Gammon Pul Gorathai near Barikot and one at Amandara Batkhela.
“The unique aspect of this scheme is that it is economical as not a single unit of electricity will be utilised for water filtration and purification,” he said. The water from four tanks at Gorathai would flow in the pipeline to low lying area of Batkhela, he added.
Mr Khan said that in the third phase, water from the fourth huge water tank would be supplied to 70 per cent population of the plain areas.
However, 30 per cent population in mountainous range would be supplied water from six tubewells, presently functional and providing water to the entire Batkhela, he said.
The provincial finance minister, who is also MPA from the constituency, told Dawn that for the last 20 years people of Batkhela were facing shortage of drinking water. “I can’t forget that pitchers-bearing women held a protest at Batkhela Bazaar, demandingsupply of clean drinking water, when I was nazim of the district,” he said.
Jumma Rehman, Baqimand Khan, Faqir, Mohammad Zamin and others residents of Gulshanabd told Dawn that a large number of people left the locality owing to non-availability of drinking water. They demanded timely completion of the project.
Former union council nazim Ihsanullah Khan, naib nazim Fazl and councillor Ghafoor Rehman said that the residents of the area, particularly women, would heave a sigh of relief after completion of the project.