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| Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink | | |
Jammu, August 20:
The abundance of water for which Jammu and Kashmir is known world wide is of no avail to people of its winter capital where the per capita availability of potable water to a huge chunk of four lakh fifty thousand population is equal to those living in Thar deserts.
With the acute scarcity of water, even the remaining population out of the total ten lakh population of Jammu also get thirty percent of the set National scale of forty liters for a person per day.
As reflected in official figures the areas inhabiting 4.5 lakh populations get a supply of one hour in forty eight hours which is only the ten percent of the per capita quantity fixed under National scale.
The present availability of potable water from all sources, as per the records, in Jammu is as much as it was in 1980 as ever since the subsequent governments failed to frame a prospective project to meet the increasing demand, even not after the city was flooded by migration here in the aftermath of out break of militancy from valley and other infested areas.
A proposal for lifting potable water from Chenab near Akhnoor was initiated way back in 2000 during NC regime but that never took off as the department stepped back to put its hand on such a big project which would have involved great technical know-how and nonchalant attitude.
The demand which increased about three times after the migration has rendered a large chunk of population thirsty as the taps across the city dry as soon as mercury hits high.
There are so many areas in the city where people rinse at home only once a week while the more unfortunate ones of other areas are provided the facility once in two weeks time.
Figures available with department show that areas from New Plot, Jawahar Nagar, Prem Nagar, Sarwal Colony, Lakshmi Nagar, Rehari Colony and Subash Nagar inhabiting a population of about 3.50 lakh get water supply for one hour on alternate basis.
However, in contradiction to official figures, the residents of these very areas very recently blocked the traffic on BC road in protest against the non availability of water for ten consecutive days.
The areas like Paloura, Patoli, High Court Complex, Lower Paloura, Roop Nagar Colony, Chinor, Patta, Paloura, Upper Muthi inhabiting a population of one lakh get the supply twice a week,
Sources in the department say that the present requirement for water in the city is 35.00 million Gallon daily (MGD) while the availability with the PHE department is only 22.00 million gallons per day which falls short of required quantity by 12.54 million gallons per day.
But as per official figures no part of the city gets sufficient water supply which apparently proves that the PHE department is actually short of the much more quantity of the water than what they claim.
The one hour supply ( for just 50,000 population) on daily basis is the maximum that the department of PHE provides in some parts like Krishna Nagar, Old university Complex, Rajinder Nagar, Vinayak Bazar, Dogra Mohalla, Mohinder Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Bhagwati Nagar, Nitco Lane and UNO Lane.
In Jammu region there are the resources which can be tapped to serve the purpose but courtesy Jammu leadership who forget everything soon after assuming power much for the worries of the people.
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