Residents of Mansehra Warn to Stage Street Protests for Water Shortages

                                  Water Shortages in Mansehra City

MANSEHRA: Residents of northern city, Mansehra, and its outskirts have warned to stage street protests if the Tehsil municipal administration didn’t ensure smooth water supply to their houses within a week.

According to The DAWN, Barkat Ali Khan, a local resident, complained about water shortages and told reporters here that the crisis had been growing amid sweltering weather to the misery of the local population.

Leading a group of residents, he said the water table had dropped significantly, while many wells and hand pumps had dried up.
The resident flayed the tehsil municipal administration over failure to ensure smooth water supply to the city and its outskirts despite spending huge sums of money on a shallow groundwater scheme.

The resident said work on the water scheme had been completed but even then, the area smooth water supply to the area hadn’t been ensured.
Another resident, Khawaja Nazakat, said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recently visited Mansehra and announced Rs1 billion funds for the resolution of water shortages on an emergency basis, but that announcement awaited action.

Resident Hafiz Abdul Qadeer said the sinking of a hand pump for water cost around Rs200,000 but the option was unaffordable for most of the inflation-hit people.
He warned that if the TMA didn’t begin water supply from the shallow well installed on the Bothkhata stream within a week, the people would take to the streets.

Pakistan is facing serious water crisis, leading to droughts, reduction of agriculture production, and subsequent economic losses.