Kabul [Afghanistan], October 1 (ANI): The Taliban-appointed officials of Baharak district in Takhar province of Afghanistan said 3000 families in the district lack safe drinking water, TOLO News reported. These officials called on the Taliban to address the issue. Abdul Majeed, a Taliban-appointed official in Baharak district, said, “There is a pool, and our people store the water in reservoirs and use it for drinking, ablution, and washing clothes.”
Residents of the Baharak district voiced similar apprehensions saying that many people get infected each year due to the use of unsanitary water, TOLO News reported. Mohammad Nayeem, a resident of Baharak district said, “We store water here and use it for fifteen days, twenty days, or a month. Sometimes it happens that even the colour of the water changes”, TOLO News reported.
Ibrahim, a resident of Baharak district said, “If there is no water, we will travel for about half an hour. That water is also not clean and is harmful to health,” according to TOLO News report. Another resident said that children fall into the pool when they go outside to play or take water. Previously, residents of parts of the centre of Takhar had complained about the lack of safe drinking water and urged local authorities to resolve the problem.
Earlier, in July, Kabul residents expressed concern about the lack of safe drinking water in the city, TOLO NEws reported. Residents claimed further that they do not have access to city water supply services and the price of drinking water from private companies has also increased.
A Kabul resident, Sher Mohammad, said, “People’s problems are many. If you ring the bell, three days or four days later it will be your turn to get water. Water also comes at a high price.” Another resident, Shah Wali said, “We live here, and nobody pays attention to us, and to our challenges, we call on the government to pay attention.”
Some other residents said they have paid money to private companies to receive water. However, they still don’t have water and the companies are demanding more money from them, according to TOLO News report. Liyaqt Ali, a PD13 resident, said, “It has been one and half months since we have drinking water and the companies said to come and renew our contracts, if not, your water will be cut off. The companies told us to renew our contracts and give us money, but officials said to not pay money.”
The General Directorate of the State Water Supply Company said they are currently distributing state water to more than 250,000 customers in 23 provinces.“In total, we have 250,000 customers, if we consider ten people in each family, more than two and a half million people are covered by the government water supply system,” said Sardar Wai Malik Zada, according to TOLO News.
He said they have tried to get the exact number of private companies from the Taliban’s Ministry of Energy and Water, but they declined to provide the information. The public water supply company says it has more than 250,000 recipients in twenty-three provinces of the country, including the capital. (ANI)
