Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Sham Lal Choudhary on Thursday said that there are 50 functional Water Supply Schemes (WSS) feeding 213 habitations of PHE Hydraulic Division Bandipora while 42 WSSs are under execution.Minister was responding to a calling attention notice by legislator Usman Majeed regarding scarcity of water in Bandipora constituency.The Minister said out of 213 habitations in Bandipora, 17 habitations are facing scarcity of drinking water for last 6 months that include Bazipora GB, New Colony Matipora Ajas, New Colony Garoora, Chengullah, Bachinaar, Galkullah, Nagbal Halwadi Aragam, Chanpal Aragam, Chinar/ New Colony, Kota Satri, Kehnoosa GB, Kainbathi GB, Chuntiwari, Changdi GB, Doban- Mian Doban, Weaven and Budbuthoo-Pethkoot
The minister further stated that recently service level has gone down in 14 more habitations primarily because of depletion of both surface and ground water source owing to continuous drought.He said to improve the water supply in the constituency, there are 42 ongoing schemes under different programmes and on completion of these schemes, service level of drinking water supply shall improve to a great extent in Bandipora Constituency.The Minister further informed the house that discharge of the main Nallahs including Erin Nallah, Madhumati Nallah and Bonar, which are main surface water sources in Bandipora Constituency, has depleted due to continuous drought for last more than 8 months. He said continuous drought has also affected ground water table which in turn has resulted in depletion of water sources.Frequent power disruptions have also affected the drinking water supply in case of lift water supply schemes. He said some of the habitations having low service level, which are accessible and have road connectivity, are being provided drinking water through tanker services.