No end to water crisis of Orghoch village

CHITRAL: Though a tank has been established to supply drinking water to the dwellers, the water crisis of Orghoch village seems far from a solution.

In 2014, water was supplied to the village for the first time by laying pipelines from Chitral Gol. But that project executed through funds provided by an NGO failed to end the water crisis of Orghoch.

Some of the 4 inch pipes were removed during the construction of the bypass road, some were on washed away by floods and the remaining were left in the open and  are still gathering dust.

The residents of the area, numbering about 3, 200, held protests and even warned to leave their abodes and migrate to Afghanistan against unavailability of the basic necessity of life.

The authorities then promised that water would be arranged for them. The provincial government approved Rs8.2 million for the project but water is yet to be arranged for the dwellers properly.

Now the Public Health Engineering Department has constructed a tank to supply water to the village.

But the villagers said water was being stored in the tank from a stream that was used to irrigate their lands.

Faridul Haq, Abdul Haq, Muhammad Asif and other residents told ChitralToday that though the temporary arrangement would save women from fetching water from far off areas it was not a permanent solution to the problem.

They demanded that the government should launch work on supplying water to the village to resolve the issue for good.–GH Farooqui