Salty water supply to Sulkhani village in Hisar irks residents

Residents of Sulkhani village in the district have alleged that they are forced to consume water supplied from submersible tubewells and open wells as the promised canal water supply remains a distant dream in the village.

The water, with a salty taste, was unfit for drinking and could result in diseases such as skin rashes, itching and hair loss, they said.

Saleem Sulkhani, a resident, said the villagers would raise the issue with the Barwala MLA and Public Works Minister Ranbir Gangwa during his scheduled visit to the village. He said officials of the Public Health Engineering Department were not paying heed to their grievances for a long time.

Earlier this year, villagers had protested at the waterworks in the village, demanding a new water channel from the Balsamand sub-branch canal to the village to bring safe water in water tanks to the village. Sulkhani said the officials had then assured them that the construction of the canal would begin within one and a half months. However, six months had passed with no visible progress, he said.

The Sulkhani waterworks were constructed at a cost of Rs 2.83 crore, which was now a mere showpiece. While new tanks, water treatment facilities and a boosting station were built, these remained underutilised for lack of water supply, villagers Sube Singh and Satbir Singh said, adding that one water tank had dried up, and the other contained foul-smelling, muddy water.

The villagers said they had decided to confront Public Health Minister and Barwala MLA Ranbir Gangwa during his upcoming visit to the village to expose the negligence of the departments concerned and demanded immediate action to resolve the crisis.

Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) of the PHED Ashish Garg said efforts were on to address the issue, adding that the new canal project would commence soon. He said the proposal to construct the new water channel from the Balsamand branch to the village had been submitted to the higher officials and they were waiting for the nod to start work on it.