Of red tape and water woes of Katlang villagers

PESHAWAR: The issue of drinking water being faced by the residents of Shamozai village in Katlang tehsil in Mardan district for many years is a classic example of red tape and incompetence of the public sector departments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Shamozai village is located in Katlang tehsil, north of Mardan, where drinking water has been a longstanding issue of its residents. Though people from different tribes live in Shamozai village, it is inhabited mostly by the Yusufzai tribe members, who are believed to have migrated from Swat several decades ago. The villagers were dependent on an old natural well, where the water was stored for use.

Water was abundant in the past and the villagers used to irrigate their fields and grow crops and vegetables.

However, water has gradually lost its quality and is no longer considered safe for drinking.

The rise in population is stated to be the main reason for its poor quality. Unlike the past, now almost every household has a toilet which is a contributing factor in polluting the groundwater.

Since it is a mountainous terrain and the natural well is located in the middle of the village, therefore, the sewerage water disappears in the ground and is mixed with the water in the well.

Also, the water supply to the well is dependent on rainfall on the mountains. In summer, particularly in dry spell, the water level drops, forcing the residents to fetch from nearby villages.

In the past few decades, the residents have repeatedly asked their elected representatives and the relevant government officials to solve this issue, but to no avail.

Around 12 years ago, a tube-well was installed outside the village with funds reportedly provided by the foreign donors but its water was never provided to the villagers due to reasons best known to the public health and engineering department. The residents started making efforts to get another tube-well installed when the well in the village dried up.

In 2018, the provincial government approved the provision of funds for the installation of a new tube-well. However, it was located at a distance from the village so it did not help resolve the issue.

The tube-well was installed in Shamozai Jeewar area in 2019 but it remained inoperative due to sheer negligence of the public health engineering department.

In December 2021 when the villagers again raised the issue, the public health department operated the tube-well and installed a 20-horsepower motor, which could not supply water to the overhead tank.

The public health department supplied water to the old natural well and then piped it to the water tank for further distribution to the households.

The residents tried to make the relevant officials understand that the natural well had already been declared unsafe, therefore, supplying the water to it would not serve the purpose.

Many executive engineers, including Abid Shah and Yasir Rahman came and went but they couldn’t resolve the water supply issue of Shamozai village.

The villagers have been asking the public health department to replace the 20-horsepower motor with 35 or 40 horsepower so that the clean water from the new tube-well could be supplied directly to the water tank and piped to the households.

They took up the issue with the secretary public health and engineering department Idrees Marwat but he too could not resolve it despite making promises.

The provision of safe drinking water and sanitation facilities to the people is the prime responsibility of the department.

The villagers are still drinking water from the same dirty well while the negligence of the public health department is causing extra expenses to the national exchequer as water is first supplied to the natural well through pipes and then again to the water tank. “The government is wasting its resources as the water is thrown in the old well and then again supplied to the water tank. Also, despite these huge expenses, we are drinking unhealthy water,” said Tilawat Khan, an elder of Shamozai village.

He said they were tired of requesting the public health department to enhance the capacity of the electric motor.

Another executive engineer, Junaid Khan was recently transferred to Mardan and he said was aware of the issue and would take it up with the relevant authorities.

Malik Shaukat Khan, local MPA and chairman of the district development advisory committee, told The News that he had also spoken to the relevant officials to resolve this issue.

While travelling from Col Sher Khan Interchange on Swat motorway, Shamozai village and its lush green fields are situated to the right side near Katlang service area.

It is the birthplace of widely known and respected journalist late Rahimullah Yusufzai, where his father, late Haji Adam Khan had supplied the water from the old well in pipes to the houses in the 1970s.