Anantnag: After spending crores of rupees on a faulty water supply scheme, that has not materialised even after four decades, the Jal Shakti Department (JSD) has come up with another scheme worth crores here in Kamad area of Anantnag district which, the locals say, is bound to fail like the earlier one given the fact that the test bore is gushing out little water, and is full of silt.
The JSD, which was until recently the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department, had in 1982 constructed an Over Head Tank (OHT) at Ugjen Teng in Kamad area. The scheme was supposed to cater to water supply needs of half a dozen villages including Kamad, Chichripora, Laalan, Nawathoo, Papaibal and Chek Kamad.
The scheme however was a failure and despite spending crores of rupees in repeated maintenance of the pipes and the OHT, the department could not make the scheme do what it was supposed to.
“As a result the only two villages that got water from the scheme were Chichripora and Chek Kamad. The rest of the villages remained dependent on spring water from nearby Peth Bugh area,” a source in the JSD told Kashmir Reader.
The spring water, too, was gone following a disease outbreak in the area a year back, wherein around 150 people had to be hospitalised after they fell sick.
After much deliberation and repeated visits to the area by higher-ups of the department, a new scheme — Aienchak Water Supply Scheme — was sanctioned and the work was started in April-May this year.
Ironically, the OHT for the scheme is being constructed right next to the defunct Ugjen Teng OHT where the water level is low and the water is full of silt.
“It is an absolute waste of money. We already know how the Ugjen Teng scheme failed, so what is the sense in constructing another scheme right next to the earlier one,” the source in JSD told Kashmir Reader.
The locals rue that their water woes have become a money-minting machine for the department.
“After spending crores on the old scheme they have come up with this new one which is also bound to fail,” Ashiq Hussain, a local, told Kashmir Reader, adding that the test bore dug by the department recently was gushing out water full of silt.
“The silt water has already damaged farm land in hundreds of kanals nearby and yet the department is going on with the construction. The exercise is nothing beyond a money-minting machine for the officials of the JSD,” Hussain accused.
Other locals Kashmir Reader talked to demanded a Vigilance onquiry into the mindless money spending in the name of these water supply schemes.
“This should be thoroughly investigated by the Vigilance department and the people making money out of our water woes should be brought to book,” Gulham Muhammad, another local resident, told Kashmir Reader.
Kashmir Reader talked to the Executive Engineer of the JSD for Bijbehara Division, Muhammad Haneef, who said that he will look into the matter.
“I have joined only a few days back and I am yet to visit the spot. I will let you know once I take stock of things on ground,” Haneef said.
The residents of these villages, meanwhile, continue to suffer in absence of clean drinking water.

Suhail A Shah