The Bamzoo Water Supply Scheme in Mattan does not cater to Bijbehara

Bijbehara: People here in Bijbehara town of Anantnag district accuse the Jal Shakti Department of utter negligence, as the quality of water supply keeps deteriorating to new lows every passing day.
Residents of the town told Kashmir Reader that the water supply was unfit for consumption, and has been so for quite a while now, while the Jal Shakti Department, formerly the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department, takes no pains whatsoever.
“It is not that we have not brought this to their notice. They are well aware of the plight we are facing but no remedies are being implemented,” the locals said.
A few years back, the touted Bamzoo Water Supply Scheme in Mattan area of Anantnag was supposed to provide drinking water to Bijbehara town as well. But there has been no headway into that proposal, despite the scheme being completed and now functional.
“We still get our water supply from a nearby water filtration plant, which has probably stopped filtering water decades back. All we get is mud and silt in the name of drinking water,” the locals alleged.
They said that they have to use multiple filtering methods at home before the water can be deemed fit for consumption. “Even water filters fail here,” the residents said. “In other parts of Kashmir, water purifiers demand servicing annually but in Bijbehara they go defunct every two months.”
Water-borne diseases are also common in the town, affecting mostly the elderly and children. The locals rue that the administration has been least bothered about their plight.
“Besides, we do not have any option of streams or springs as an alternate water supply. All we have is what we get from the PHE department,” the locals lament.
Kashmir Reader talked to the Executive Engineer PHE in Bijbehara, Ashish Sharma, who assured that swift action will be taken to address the issue.
“I will personally inspect the filtration plant and then depute our team to locate leakages if any,” he said.
He suspected that the murky water was because of some leakages in the supply pipes. “Otherwise, we have a proper filtration system in place and water quality is usually good,” he said.

Suhail A Shah