ABBOTTABAD: Acute water shortage has been reported in Abbottabad city for last few days.

The badly-hit areas are thickly-populated upper and lower Kehal, Kunj Jadeed, Kunj Qadeem, Malikpura and main city localities with the concerned authorities having failed to find a solution to the problem. All the 19 tube-wells operating in the district have been out of order.

Currently, clean drinking water is supplied to Abbottabad municipality area through much publicised gravity water flow scheme which was completed by public health engineering department a year back at a cost of Rs4.6 billion. The funds were provided by Japanese government and scheme was completed through JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency).

However, due to faulty design, the scheme has failed to ensure water supply to every nook and corner of the city. Citizens have been the victims of a tug-of-war between two departments, public health and the TMA, with none admitting that it is its responsibility to ensure water to the citizens.

The main reason for water shortage is water source located in Galiyat often gets choked by mud and silt whenever there is rain. And, in hot summer, the same water source gets dried up, stressing consumers out. Amna Waheed, SDO public health, admitted that due to rise in temperature, water sources in the district had dried up and not enough water was available to be stored and supplied to Abbottabad city.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2016