Over a week without water, the people of Solan take to the streets

Residents of Maithal hamlet, under the Mittian gram panchayat of Nalagarh, demonstrated today, holding empty utensils, protesting the authorities’ callous disregard for their lack of water provision for the last eight days.

Women on protest demanded the authorities investigate the reason behind their homes’ empty taps.

People are having to go three to five kilometers to get water due to disruptions in the water supply. The villagers claim they have brought up the matter of the lack of water on several times with the local MLA and the employees of the Jal Shakti Department (JSD), but to no result. In the community, even a pond had dried up.

The locals taunted the JSD employees with signs and threatened to gherao the Nalagarh SDM’s office and the Solan Deputy Commissioner if the water supply was not restored quickly.

Villager Amar Singh said that they had gone a week without water. “I have worked for the JSD for 36 years, and I have retired. He stated, “I have spoken to the local MLA two days ago, as well as the department staff and the contractor overseeing the scheme, but to no avail.”

JSD SDO Abhishek Mohan Kapil said that he became aware of the issue today and that he would make sure the appropriate steps were taken to provide the locals with water.

The bulk of the people were suffering since they lacked a means of transportation to gather water, while the villages bemoaned that others with automobiles were able to obtain water from adjacent locations.

Two projects provided water to the area: a lift potable water scheme and a gravity scheme. However, the community has not had water for the last eight days. The people said they had no idea why the water supply had been cut off.

The ladies complained that nobody was paying attention to their complaints, as water was needed for livestock as well as domestic purposes.