LG reps urge govt to solve water crisis in Mansehra city

MANSEHRA: The chairmen of the neighbourhood councils on Thursday demanded the government to ensure the supply of potable water to the city and its suburbs, warning that they would take to the streets in protest if their demand was not met.

“We have already met with the deputy commissioner and local lawmakers, seeking their intervention for the provision of drinking water, but to no avail,” Israr Khan alias Pool, chairman of neighbourhood council-I, told reporters.

He said that the chairmen from nearly all 11 neighbourhood councils in Mansehra and surrounding areas had agreed to launch a protest campaign against the worsening water crisis before Eidul Azha.

“We have been planning to convene a grand jirga within the next few days to finalise a strategy for a sit-in outside the deputy commissioner’s office and to block major roads,” Israr Khan said.

He added that the water crisis had worsened with the onset of summer, but civic authorities had failed to operationalise existing or new water schemes that could meet the growing demand.

“Neither the federal nor the provincial governments have taken the water shortage seriously. Despite the approval of funds, the mega gravity water supply scheme has yet to be inaugurated,” he added.

He said the Thanda Bala water supply scheme, completed with assistance from a non-governmental organisation, still hasn’t been made operational.He also expressed concern over the misuse of the Ichar Nullah water scheme, which was originally designed to provide clean drinking water to residents of the city and surrounding areas.