SHANGLA: The Shangla residents have complained that they are contracting various water-borne diseases as water supplied to them often gets mixed with sewage due to passage of the pipelines through the drains.

Wakeel Khan, a local resident, said about 30 per cent of people of Bisham consumed water supplied to them from the Indus and Khan Khwar rivers, where the drains of the entire city got emptied.

He said drinking water was a basic life necessity, but due to lack of proper management, distribution and construction of water tanks at inappropriate places, a number of residents had been deprived of the fundamental right.

Meanwhile, sources told Dawn that over 190 government-run gravity water supply schemes across the district had a very faulty distribution system. Most of the lines, supplying water to Bisham, Puran, Chakesar, Shahpur and Karora, pass through the drains constructed along the roads, they added.

“Due to absence of a proper check, people take connections directly from the main supply lines, thus damaging them,” Shahid Khan, a worker of the public health engineering department, said, adding this allowed sewage to seep into the water pipelines.

Say most pipelines pass through drains causing drinking water to mix with sewage

Mian Raham Ghaffar, an environmentalist, said there was no mechanism for covering the water sources and that the pipelines were installed through the drains. He said cholera, typhoid, hepatitis and dysentery were the frequently reported diseases in Shangla due to consumption of unsafe and contaminated water.

It is to mention here that after the construction of tunnel for 17MW hydropower project in Karora, five natural springs in Donai have dried up, forcing people to get water from river.

The public health engineering department claims that it had conducted tests of the water samples, which showed that the commodity was safe for drinking.

Yousaf Khan, executive engineer of public health engineering, Shangla, said he was striving to ensure proper line distribution. “It is a fact that people have installed water pipelines in drains and unsafe paths, where water gets contaminated,” he said.

The assistant commissioner, Alpuri, said the water consumed by the people of the district headquarters had never been tested for its purity. He said water supply lines were broken at different points.

OPEN DRAIN TROUBLES PEOPLE: People have complained that school going children often fall into an open drain along the Karakoram Highway in Bisham city and demanded that it should be covered.

They said the clogged drain had become a torment for the passers-by, particularly school going children.

Fazal Elahi, a local resident, said he had witnessed over a dozen children and elderly falling into the open drain and sustaining injuries. “The drain has not been covered for six months since it was uncovered by FWO for its cleaning,” he said.

Sajad Ahmed, another local, said his son’s hand was fractured when he fell into the drain while going to school.

Sohana, a young girl, told Dawn that she was afraid of moving along the open drain while going to school because it was deep and dirty water flowed through it. She said one of her class fellows fell into the drain a day before and got injured.

The locals demanded of FWO to get the drain covered as soon as possible.

TMA enforcement officer Ghayyur Khan said the drain was the NHA property. He said the TMA would ensure cleaning of the drain.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2019