Our State is rich in water resources because we have innumerable rivers, streams, nullahs, lakes, and springs from which water is used by people for drinking purposes. This enormous quantity of water is pure and fresh as long as it flows down the hills. But once it leaves the mountains and gorges, and enters the plains where human beings establish habitats and settlement on the banks or close to them, the water loses purity and taste as it gets contaminated through human intervention. How wantonly we desecrate water bodies and pollute the richest gift of nature is too painful to recount. Up to the advent of the age of science people never knew that contaminated and polluted water was the source of many diseases, some of them fatal for the human beings as well as the cattle wealth. Only when scientists revealed how water gets contaminated and how this life giving commodity becomes poison we realised that water born diseases could have been the source of great human tragedies. We are far behind the civilized world in terms of awareness of health tips. It is only now that the Governments have realized that healthcare should not remain content with treating ailing bodies through medication or other means, but that protection of environ and ecology also are of prime importance and adjuncts of health promotion schemes.
But despite that realization, we are far behind in providing filtered and treated water to people for drinking purpose. According to the report of the CAG on drinking water status in the state, 16.09 lakh families receive untreated water from 341 water supply schemes in seven divisions of Kashmir that is being test-checked in the filtration plants. Raw water is collected from nullahs and is directly supplied to people without filtration. Government authorities have confirmed that unfiltered and untreated water is being supplied for consumption. More than five lakh households get untreated tap water from untreated water sources in the State. 12, 88,451 households comprising 63.9 per cent of population in the State have access to tap water. Out of this 6, 99,173 households accounting for 34.7 per cent of population consume tap water from the treated sources, while 5, 89,278 households comprising 29.2 per cent of the population get tap water from untreated sources. These are official figures. The position of water supply in Jammu region is no better and 53 to 65 per cent results obtained from laboratories that were assigned the task of testing the drinking water supplied to the citizens of Jammu were found unfiltered and untreated. Surprisingly even the water supplied by PHE through pipes, too, could not pass the test. Integrated Disease Surveillance Unit (IDSU) of Director of Health Services, Kashmir, which routinely collects reports from the district hospitals, has shown high coliform bacteria count in Kashmir’s water bodies. This bacterium is responsible for several waterborne diseases highly injurious to human health.
This has been brought out by the CAG in its report and is also endorsed by the data officially made available. One shudders on finding total negligence of medical and public health authorities in leaving people with no alternative but to drink contaminated water. In the background of this situation how can we believe that the bottled water sold in the market is really filtered and treated? In a way nearly 100 per cent population in the State is consuming contaminated water and without knowing that they are doing so. Medical sources say that the number of patients who have fallen ill owing to contaminated water is steadily rising in Government and private hospitals. If this situation continues, a day may come when we will hardly find anybody without one or the other disease.
We would implore upon PHE, Medical, Water Supply and other relevant departments to immediately join heads and produce detailed report of how drinking water supplied to towns and cities is given 100 per cent treatment meaning it is filtered and treated scientifically and then only supplied to the consumers. The Government is bound to provide pure and clean drinking water not only to urban but also to rural areas. It has to be a massive scheme and will take its own time. But filtration and treatment of water already under supply cannot wait even for a day.
Follow our WhatsApp channel