The Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir is facing a shortage of water after the heavy downpour followed by floods in August led to critical damage to the local water supply infrastructure.
The Jal Shakti Department has been grappling with extensive repairs to pipelines and infrastutcure constructed under its schemes. The floods and rainfall damaged 160 of over 200 water supply schemes that were operational in the district.
Executive Engineer, Jal Shakti Department, Udhampur, Sandeep Gupta, stated that out of those 160 schemes, 24 suffered severe damage. He said that due to the impact, the work of the JJM scheme has been completely halted. He underlined that the new scheme under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) suffered severe damage as well.
"We faced a lot of problems during the period from August to September... We had about 200 schemes that supplied water. Roughly 160 of them were damaged. Of those, 24 schemes suffered severe damage, which we have not yet been able to restore. We have restored 70-80% of the water... The new JJM scheme suffered heavy damage, and its work has been completely halted..." he said.
A resident of Darsoo village, Vibhakar Singh, shared that the rainfall and floods caused serious water issues in the village and even washed away the roads.
"There are serious water problems in our village. The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) project here was completely washed away in the rain... The roads in our village were also completely washed away..." he said.
Another resident of the same village, Latif, appealed to the government to restart the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme in the village to restore water and demanded quick compensation for the losses caused by the floods.
"The heavy rains and subsequent flooding that occurred in J&K from 26 August to 9 September caused heavy losses to many government schemes and projects. The Jal Jeevan Mission project has still not been started in this village... I appeal to the government to start this scheme as soon as possible. The losses caused by the flood should be compensated for quickly. Many roads in this village have been damaged. People are facing great difficulties. I would also like to appeal to Shivraj Singh Chouhan and J&K Minister Javid Ahmad Dar, DC Saloni Rai, and Ranbir Singh Pathania to give these works special attention and top priority..." he stated.
The Jal Shakti Department of Udhampur is constantly putting efforts to restore water in the affected regions.
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