Sameer Ahmad
Anantnag: Even after 70 people fell ill of water borne disease in Kamad village in Anantnag district and while JLNM Hospital declared all four sources of water to the village not fit for human consumption, authorities are yet to provide portable water for its inhabitants.
Inhabitants rue callous approach of administration specially Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department of supplying contaminated drinking water, putting lives at risk.
JLNM had collected samples of water from well, tap, stream and canal after diarrhea outbreak in the village.
In its report submitted on May 23 the hospital, conducted to detect Coliform, said that all the four water samples have unsatisfactory MPN count.
“The water sample collected are not fit for human consumption and other uses,” the report reads.
The locals from the affected village alleged that the department was supplying water from a local stream putting the health of hundreds of people at risk.
“The only option left for us is to walk long distances every day, kilometers together, in search of portable water. It’s shamefull of PHE who is playing a cruel joke with our lives,” inhabitants said.
The villagers said that if authorities do not act immediately they will be forced to take harsh measures ‘for villagers benefit’.
“The responsibility of our action will lie on the administration and specifically PHE. They should not complain that time that people are harsh on them,” villagers threatened.
