CHITRAL-Women in Shali village of Chitral have to go through a tiresome and risky exercise everyday to fulfil their water needs as the water supply pipelines were damaged by the snowfall months ago.
The women, holding buckets and drums, have to pass through about a 1,000 feet hilly way to get water from the river, and then climb up the hill as a daily routine.
Located 50km away from Chitral Town, the residents of Shali village, which is located in Arkari Valley, are severely disappointed by the way the Public Health Engineering Department has ignored their plight for long.
The women carrying water buckets on their heads climb up the mountain to reach their houses. “We don’t have the supply of drinking water at our houses because the pipelines were damaged due to heavy snowfall. We have to carry water in these buckets and canisters everyday moving up and down the hill,” said Zareena Bibi, a resident of the village, while the other girls agreed to her version, urging the district and provincial authorities to take measures to address the issue.
“We have to go to the river at least thrice a day - in the morning, afternoon and evening, to get water for drinking, cooking, washing and other usages,” said Bibi Amina, a woman carrying a yellow bucket, which is being reused after the cooking oil it originally contained has been consumed.
The women raised their buckets and canisters in front of the camera, symbolically protesting against the poor state of affairs. They appealed to the provincial chief minister for conducting inquiry to ascertain that how many funds were spent on schemes and projects of water supply and how many people are still deprived of the facility. They said that millions of rupees were spent just in papers by corrupt officials.