SHOPIAN: Dumping site of Sofanaman Shopian is polluting water bodies with locals complaining that it is posing a threat to human health by contaminating drinking water sources. Locals said that heaps of polythene are lying in the dumping site which is polluting water bodies like Rambiara, it’s canals and Naegrai spring – which has historical significance. Rambiara rivulet is the major resource of water in district Shopian. It provides drinking water, sanitation and irrigation supply to hundreds of villages of district Shopian and Pulwama.

According to officials posted at Mini Secretariat, which is close to this dumping site, said that bad odour from this site is causing inconvenience to the employees and other people. The Sofanaman government land was adapted as dumping site four decades ago and is very close to human habitations like Sofanaman village, Aglar, Arhama and Mini Secretariat. Officials in district administration said that the higher officials in Urban Local Bodies are causing hindrance in shifting this site, “which has threatened water resources, to the proposed site in Lethpora”.

Official data reveal that over 600 people have got affected with hepatitis A, B and C in year 2018 and 2019 and drinking of contaminated water was among the reasons for this disease. An official said that for many years, authorities promised that they are going to shift the site to Letpora where a dumping site was being constructed. “Due to some reasons, the plan was withdrawn,” he said. Deputy commissioner Shopian Choudhary Muhammad Yasin told Kashmir Reader that the administration has plans to shift the site, “but the director Urban Local Bodies is causing hindrance”. Director Urban Local Bodies Kashmir Riyaz Ahmad Wani told Kashmir Reader that shifting of Shopian dumping site to Lethpora was never in a plan. When asked about alternate site, he said that it is up to the district administration. “District administration has to identify the land and Municipal Council can assist them,” he added.

Raashid Hassan