Chitral town neighbourhoods enter eighth day without drinking water

Residents of three neighbourhoods in Chitral town have been without drinking water for eight consecutive days after a six-inch supply pipeline was damaged during construction work in Singoor, local elders said.

Shahzada Siraj Ulmulk and Gul Rehman Chitrali told reporters the line serving Gankorini, Balach and Singoor was ruptured by an excavator operated by a man building a house in the area. UrduPoint and Chitral Today both carried their account.

The Water Supply Unit and the local administration have not repaired the pipeline properly in the eight days since, according to both reports. Siraj said residents had approached the concerned officials repeatedly and that their complaints had produced no result.

Siraj shared photographs on Facebook of what he described as an inadequate repair attempt: a tree branch inserted into the damaged pipe in place of a technical repair. The branch did not restore the supply and has begun to deteriorate, he said.

UrduPoint reported that the disruption has left a large number of households struggling to meet daily drinking water needs, with families forced to look for alternative sources.

The elders asked why a six-inch line could not be fixed in more than a week. They called on the district administration to take notice of the situation and demanded an emergency technical intervention by the Water Supply Unit to restore the pipeline without further delay.

Neither report carried a statement from the Water Supply Unit or the district administration.

Chitral town sits in the district of the same name in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where supply lines running from hill streams to dense neighbourhoods are frequently damaged by construction and road work.