The much awaited water supply schemes in South Kashmir’s Shopian district have been finally completed after several years bringing much relief to the locals.
The two water supply schemes which were completed include the water supply scheme at Safanagri and Sofipora Zainapora.
Locals from the Safanagri said that the scheme was sanctioned for the village in the 1970s and since then people of the area were waiting for its completion.
The residents said that despite that the scheme was sanctioned decades before but work on it was started around two decades ago which was completed just this year.
Abdul Hamid, a local Auqaf member said that people of the area are very happy as they have for the first time got potable water at their doorsteps for which they had to walk for kilometers before.
“Water scarcity has finally ended in the village and people of the area are now happy. The scheme was constructed at a cost of around Rs 2 crore,” he said.
Locals said that all households should be connected at an earliest to get the water supply.
Meanwhile, locals from Sofipora and Hydergund villages of Shopian said that a water supply scheme was sanctioned during the BJP-PDP regime with the help of the former MLA Aijaz Ahmad Mir in 2017.
“Soon after the sanction, the construction work was started. However, the construction later got delayed due to the unfavorable condition post abrogation of special status of J&K followed by Covid-19,” they said.
Mansoor Ahmad, Numberdar of Sofipora village, said that presently just few households have been connected but with each passing day more households are being connected.
He said that the pipeline which has been laid is full of leakages which authorities must fix at the initial stage.
Locals while thanking the district administration demanded that the whole population of the twin backward villages must be connected with the scheme so that they too can avail potable drinking water facilities.
G A Tantray, Assistant Executive Engineer PHE Sub division Zainapora said that work on ground is going on to connect all households of the area in Safanagri as well as in Sofipora and Hydergund.
“All households will be connected soon. The leakage issues will also be fixed,” Tantray said—(KNO)