For villagers in Matta, potable water comes at a price

Twice a day, residents cover long distances to fetch spring water.

SWAT:

Getting water to drink is a challenge for residents of rural Swat. Every day, twice a day, women, children and the elderly have to cover long distances to fetch water from stream and springs.

Some 417 families in six small villages in Kalakot, Matta tehsil are deprived of clean drinking water for which their members have to set out of the house come hail or sunshine.

In Churrai 1, Churrai 2, Said Koma, Gair Mohallah and Munzkar villages, residents have to fetch water on their heads and shoulders twice a day. For them, getting clean drinking water is a tiresome job, to which there seems to be no end.

Zaman Baba, 70, who has been fetching water on his shoulders for the last 62 years seemed exhausted. “I’ve been fetching water since my childhood and I’m still at it. It was not so tough when I was young but now I get tired of it because of my old age and illness,” he told The Express Tribune.



Every child of the village is a water carrier. They have to get up early in the morning and bring water before breakfast. We get water twice, early in the morning and then in the evening, said Sakina, 12. “We get vacations from schools but we never get any day off from this job. I hate it,” she added.

For children, fetching water in summers is easier compared to winters. Freezing cold and rain add to their miseries. “In summer, it’s simply tiring but in winter we’re chilled to the bone and our feet and hands start to ache,” said Sohail and Ijaz, two small children who were walking along with water cans.

They are dependent upon springs and streams for water where animals also come to quench their thirst. “Though spring water is clean on the surface, it’s contaminated because animals drink from it as well. It infects villagers with water-borne diseases and skin ailments,” said Dr Anwar.



The villagers have tried hard to arrange an alternative. They have asked elected representatives time and again to install tube-wells for their villages. But so far there have only been empty promises and not a single step has been taken to address the problem.

“Whenever I request elected representatives to make a water tank and install pipelines in our villages, they only make false promises and then forget about it,” said a villager.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Science and Technology, Ayub Khan Asharey, who was elected from this constituency, could not be contacted for his version.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2013.