No potable water for decades, Doda BPL families pool money to lay pipe

Bhaderwah, January 24

Claiming neglect over the past seven decades, villagers in remote Thanhala panchayat in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district have set out on a mission this winter to bring potable water home.

To fulfil their objective, families, most of whom are below poverty line, in the snow-bound village in the lap of the mighty Ashapati Glacier, recently decided to collect Rs 40,000 to purchase water pipes.

“We are trying to set an example as the government has failed miserably to ensure tap water to us over the years. In the absence of the facility, we have to fetch water round the year from a nearby source even during this harsh winter amid the lurking threat of avalanches,” Aijaz Ahmad, a local resident, said.

About 30 families live in the village bordering Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh, just 1.5 km from the intestate Bhaderwah-Chamba road. Villagers depend on labour work in Bhaderwah town to make ends meet. Despite the ‘Har Ghar Nal Yojana’ under the Jal Jeevan Mission, villagers claim that none of the households are connected with piped water supply.

Rakesh Kumar, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Bhaderwah, said providing potable water to every household was the priority of the government.

“I will take up the issue with the Jal Shakti department to make temporary arrangements for providing piped water to the village in view of extreme cold wave conditions till a permanent gravity line is laid under the Jal Jeevan Mission,” he said.

“I earn only Rs 400 a day from labour work and try to make ends meet with great difficulty. But to save the lives of our womenfolk, who risk their lives every day to collect water in extreme weather conditions, I have been contributing half of my earnings every day for the last one month to buy plastic pipes,” said Ahmad. — PTI

Women worst-hit

The womenfolk seem to be the worst sufferers as they have to risk their lives every day amid winter to fetch water from the bottom of Ashapati Glacier, which is prone to frequent snow avalanches. “My father and elder brother are labourers. Under these circumstances, this has become a tradition for girls to collect water for their families. This is the story of every household here. Because of this, none of the girls here have studied beyond Class VIII,” Aiza Bano (13) said.