LAKKI MARWAT: The shortage of clean drinking water faced by the residents of urban and rural area of Lakki Marwat could not be overcome despite a lapse of several years due to apathy on part of the local government representatives, lawmakers and authorities concerned.

Being one of the most backward districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the successive governments have not paid any heed to rid the local residents of the problem of water scarcity.

People say that the lawmakers sink tube-wells for their blue-eyed people who use the facility as their personal property.

Lack of clean drinking water is causing spread of diseases, especially among women and children. With an estimated population of more than 700,000, many people in rural localities have to share traditional rainwater ponds with animals.

In urban localities of the district, a network of pipelines has been laid to supply water to the residents while in rural areas tube-well water is stored in large tanks.

From these tanks villagers fetch water to their homes on donkey and camel carts.

The excessive power outages and low voltage have also multiplied the water problem in the urban and rural localities. Now the people are demanding conversion of tube-wells on solar power system so that they could get water during prolonged electricity loadshedding.

In several rural localities rainwater is stored in traditional ponds for cattle and other animals. Children also use the ponds for swimming.

Rainwater stored in ponds is also used by villagers for domestic needs. The ponds, locally called `Tarajaat`, are the breeding places of a variety of diseases.

The villagers mostly women and children fall prey to diseases such as hepatitis, typhoid and diarrhoea due to use of contaminated water.

`The main cause of the outbreak of hepatitis, typhoid and diarrhoea among women and children is the consumption of contaminated water,` says Dr Abdur Rehman, medical superintendent of the dis-trict headquarters hospital.

He urges the need for getting proper treatment, saying that negligence can even lead to death.

Dr Rehman asked the people to avoid treating children with diarrhoea at home and take them to hospital for proper care. Dr Abdur Rehman highlighted the importance of hygienic water and urged creating awareness in this regard, adding that water should be boiled before use to ensure its purity.

`The stagnant water ponds are the death points for the rural population of the district,` said a social worker and a local journalist Mohammad Zubair. He said the ponds served as breeding places for mosquitoes that caused malaria and other diseases. `There is the dire need to get rid of theses ponds instead of spending fund on their repair and rehabilitation by the government,` he maintained.

A local PTI activist Ahmad Nawaz says that to provide the people with basic amenity of clean drinking water is the responsibility of local government. He says the nazims and councillors should ensure replacement of broken pipelines witty new ones and stop the use of tube-wells by influentials as their personal property.

The seriousness on part of the government to provide clean drinking water to the residents can be judged from the fact that the only water filtration plant in Lakki city has been lying dysfunctional since long.In 2005, the government launched a project to install filtration plants in each union council across the country.

However, only two filtration plants were installed in two Lakki Marwat union councils, leaving 31 out of 33 union councils without filtration plants. `Two filtration plants in Lakki and Naurang cities are dysfunctional and out of order,` residents said.

Unfortunately, the authorities concerned do not pay any attention to the faulty tube-wells as well and thus people are compelled to use the contaminated water from rainwater ponds.

Mohammad Zubair, a social worker from Zangikhel, said the government was least bothered to repair the faulty tube-wells, adding that they were forced to use unhygienic water.