People from three different villages of Rajouri on Saturday held a protest demonstration against Jal Shakti Department accusing its executive engineer Mushtaq Ahmed and assistant executive engineer Ghulam Nabi of gross failure to ensure smooth water supply in their area.
They said that water supply in Mankote, Sadhyal and Mubarakhpura villages is disrupted from the last seven months as the department has failed to repair the pipes that got damaged in road construction work.
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"PWD damaged pipes in road work and Jal Shakti Department did not even bothered to repair it. More than 1500 people in three villages are left in a state of helplessness," protesters said.
They said that both executive engineer in Rajouri and an assistant executive engineer are well aware of the plight of the masses but are not even bothered to redress the problem of people in the area.
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The protesters raised slogans against the Jal Shakti Department during the protest.
According to a UN report, of the 2.1 billion people in the world who do not have safely managed water, 844 million do not have access to basic drinking water. This includes 263 million people who have to spend over 30 minutes per trip collecting water from sources outside the house and 159 million who still drink untreated water from surface water sources, such as streams and lakes, says the report.
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The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) had found that household member in rural areas of J&K spends an average of 21 minutes a day to fetch drinking water from a source outside their premises. In addition to that, she spends an average waiting time of 12 minutes a day at the principal source of drinking water. (KNO)
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