Herat City residents complain drinking water shortage

HERAT CITY (Pajhwok): The residents of Herat City, the capital of western Herat province, have complained against the shortage of drinking water and asked local officials to address this serious issue. Atiqullah, the resident of Herat City’s 7th Municipality District, told Pajhwok Afghan News: “Now they have access to tap water two to three hours while in the past they had up to 15 hours access to tap water.” He complained the Water Supply Department collected its charges prior while it was failed to supply adequate water to the residents. He said: “Tap water are not available for more than three hours these days, water comes during the night and we must remained awake, sometimes we bring drinking water from Mosques.” Mohammad Younis, the resident of 3rd Municipality District, also complained against the shortage of drinking water and said the duration of water supply was not more than three hours in 24 hours. He said other residents faced similar issue and asked local officials to address their problem. Some residents also complained against the waste of water by some people. Abdul Razaq, the resident of Herat City, said people should be careful when it comes to the use of drinking water, it should not be used for cleaning and irrigation purpose. Gharib Shah Haidari, Herat City Water Supply General Director, said water in their well had declined by 40 percent. “The ground water level dropped by 40 percent while the water in our well dropped by up to 120 metres,” he said. Herat University Teacher Ahmad Wahid, said: “Ground water is a blessing bestwed to the humanity and we should carefully used them.” He added everyone in Herat is concerned about the unnecessary use of drinking water and people themselves should prevent this trend. Clean drinking water shortage issue in Herat City surfaced at times when according to experts if digging deep wells and unnecessary use of drinking water is not stopped then around two million people in Herat will faced with water shortage.