Kupwara March 13 (KNS): Despite spending funds worth crores, 9 out of 11 filtration plants in Handwara area of north Kashmir's Kupwara district are defunct.
Reports reaching Kashmir News Service (KNS), said to overcome water shortage in the area and to provide safe drinking water to locals, Jal Shakti department has spend fund worth crores to build water reservoirs and filtration plants under Jal Jeevan Mission and other projects, but the execution of these projects has been at stake, as several projects are lying defunct now.
They said 9 out of 11 filtration plants constructed at an estimated cost of around 20 Crore are lying defunct as maximum plants have suffered cracks or lacking proper execution.
"A sand slow filtration plant was built 7 years ago in Badbug Langate at an estimated cost of around 3 crore, however, since then the plant has never been made functional till today."
Similarly, 2 more plants were constructed in Kazipora Kachloo and Lokipora but people are yet to get any benefit from these plants as they were never made functional.
Several filtration plants constructed in other parts of Handwara are defunct, thus forcing people to use contaminated water.
The department has surfaced network of pipelines across the division to provide tap water to every household, but some areas comprising, upper Qaziabad villages, Phoro-Chakla villages, some areas in Mawer, Handwara and Rajwar are facing acute shortage of drinking water.
Meanwhile, executive engineer Jal Shakti department Handwara Najeeb Ahmad said that due to some technical snags some plants are non-functional and several others are under languishing project due to lack of payments.
"We are looking into these to ensure the functionality at the earliest. Under Jal Jeevan mission, the department has around 55 new schemes, and tendering of over 21 schemes has been started," he said.
He added tendering has been completed on around 31 schemes, while several of them have got allotment. (KNS)