KOHAT, Sept 23: The residents of Bilitang town and KDA Township here have been facing severe shortage of drinking water due to negligence of public health engineering department (PHED) and other authorities concerned.

Elders of Bilitang town told this correspondent on Sunday that the water supply scheme, which was inaugurated four years ago by provincial housing minister Amjid Khan Afridi, was not yet functional. They said that Rs5.2 million had been spent on the scheme, but people were yet to fully benefit from the scheme.

A group of residents of Bilitang town, including Khalid, Kamal, Najmul Hassan, Shaukat Ijaz, Hamayun Khan and Momeen Khan, said that women and children had to cover long distances to fetch water for domestic use. They said that they had been registering complaints with the PHED for last many months, but the department never took any action to make arrangements for water supply.

The residents claimed that the PHED SDO, Afzal Khan, had been refusing to listen to their requests and alleged that the official had awarded contract of maintenance of the pipeline to his relative. They said that the pipeline was damaged at several points and water was being wasted. They demanded of the authorities to order swift repair of the pipeline and ensure smooth supply of water.

Meanwhile, people of Kohat Development Authority (KDA) Township are also facing water shortage due to low pressure of pumps supplying water to the area. The residents said that they had to buy water from private tanker owners at exorbitant rates.

The KDA town is located on a steep hill and water could not reach the sectors 9, 10 and 11 and official residences. The residents have demanded that the township administration should ensure water supply for them because they had paid all development charges at the time of buying plots.

KDA town project director told journalists that he was aware of the situation, adding that the authority had two tankers whereas two more were hired privately and nobody was charging money for providing water to the residents.

However, he said that he had forwarded complaints to the authorities concerned for smooth supply of electricity so that residents could be supplied drinking water according to their needs.

He said that complaint cell could be contacted for provision of water by tankers.