Looming drinking water scarcity

Water table in the provincial metropolis of Peshawar and a number of other districts has abnormally gone down. There are reports of hundreds of water supply tube wells becoming non-operational because of water table issues. The water supply situation may become worse in the next summer as the government has not put in place an alternative system for the provision of drinking water to the people. Moreover, the disconnections of electricity supply, technical faults in water pulling motors and non-availability of operators have further compounded this problem.

Water Supply and Sanitation Project had been started in the previous PTI provincial government to resolve the water supply scarcity problem in summer. Water rates have been almost doubled but water scarcity issue was not addressed at all. In southern districts of the province fall in water table could have been stopped if small storage dams had been built during the past six years. People are paying the price of skewed development priorities of the provincial government.