Kashmir Watch: Sopor: Saturday, March 10, 2018.
With defunct
water filtration plants, the households in Baramulla are being supplied
untreated water directly from canals and rivulets, causing a major health risk.
As per the data reveal through an RTI, district Baramulla has total number of
75 water filtration plants (excluding Uri) of which 10 fall under sub-division Sopore,
23 under sub division Tangmarg, and 40 under sub-division Baramulla of these,
27 are defunct.
In the reply
of the RTI filed by Kashmir watch correspondent, the Public Health Engineering
(PHE) department has acknowledged that with the passage of time, slow sand
filtration plants get defunct due to the high turbidity at sources by heavy
rains which results in the choking of filtration plants. “To make these plants
functional it (the department) needs to revamp, for which proper plan is framed
and work is executed in accordance with the funds made available by the
government for the same financial year,” mentioned the reply.
According to
the official report three filtration plants situated in Rafiabad area are
defunct due to the choking of filter media and the court stay order by the land
owner of the village. Most of the filtration plants at Pattan area need
revamping they added.
The three
filtration plants in Baghiisalm, Azadgunj and Jetty colony Khawaja Bagh,
Baramulla which were constructed decades ago have lost their filtration
capacity. They filter the water by old techniques of gravels and sand filters.
As of now, they don’t have any new technique or equipment for water
purification except the introduction of boulders from past five years.
Locals have
regularly been raising apprehensions of breakout of water borne diseases. “The
garbage from our houses is being thrown directly into Jehlum, the main source
of water. Every morning as people leave their homes for offices, shops, etc. They carry garbage bags to be thrown into the
river as they reach the bridge (cement bridge Baramulla),” says Abdul Majeed, a
local. He remembers the river water being clear like a mirror in past and
people would to drink from it.
Javeed Ahmad,
a resident of model town Sopore says that the PHE department is not showing any
concern towards the matter.”We are facing water shortage. The water we receive
is only chlorinated and not filtered despite having a filtration plant in
place,” he says. The filtration plants
are not being used he believes.
Dr Shahid
(MBBS) working at Sub district hospital Sopore admitted that contaminated water
supply is one of the main causes of higher incidence of water borne diseases in
the area. “We are facing huge rush of patients suffering from diseases like
Hepatitis, jaundice, depheria and typhoid,” he said adding people must drink
boiled water or water mixed with chlorine tablets to prevent themselves from
diseases.
A study
conducted by Manzoor A. Wani and others earlier this year reveals that the
total cases recorded in the Sub-District Hospital Sopore related to waterborne
diseases year 2012-2014 were 26532. In a sample of 500 households covering 3185
persons, the study named “Impact of drinking water quality on the health status
of people in Sopore Tehsil of district Baramulla” also mentions that about
32.90 percent were suffering from waterborne diseases like Diarrhea,
Hepatitis-A, Gastro intestinal, Dermatitis, Conjunctivitis and enteric fever.
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