Clean water critical to quake returns

The Aga Khan Foundation is bringing clean drinking water to thousands of earthquake survivors in mountainous parts of Pakistani-administered Kashmir. The provision of water is seen as critical to the sustainable return of hundreds of thousands of survivors of October’s earthquake. “We are installing water pipelines in Hir Kotli. The main pipeline is about 60,000 feet long [around 18 km] and there are some sub-pipelines, which take water to villages and hamlets in the area,” Muhammed Shakeel Abbasi, a supervisor with the Aga Khan Foundation in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, said. Hir Kotli is a mountainous area and home to some 14,000 residents. Although it is just 15 km up the Neelum Valley from Muzaffarabad, the gradient and poor road means it usually takes at least one and a half hours to drive there. The area is not easily accessible, particularly during rains and subsequent landslides, which make the lives of Hir Kotli residents even harder as they have to walk for several hours to collect water. “Water has always been a problem for local residents in Hir Kotli. The quake just made it even worse,” Muhammed Ijaz from the Aga Khan Foundation said. The NGO has already provided four villages out of 14 in the area with drinking water and plans to supply the rest in coming months. “The water source is up in the mountains and we are laying pipes to bring the water to residents down in the villages. So it takes some time. Our plan is to provide water to all the inhabitants of Hir Kotli,” Abbasi noted. The project also creates work by employing those who stand to gain from the water as labourers. “When we complete the project in Hir Kotli, we will start the same work in Jhelum Valley, where water access is also a huge problem,” Ijaz said. The 8 October earthquake ripped through parts of Pakistani-administered Kashmir and northern Pakistan, killing at least 80,000 and injuring another 100,000. The devastating tremor, one of the worst in Pakistan’s history, left over 3 million homeless and disrupted water sources in affected areas, particularly in mountain villages. The quake shifted underground water sources, many mountain springs dried up, water pipe networks and storage tanks were destroyed, leaving hundreds of thousands of survivors without water. The lack of clean drinking water is one of the major challenges for survivors of the earthquake and needs to be addressed urgently if they are to be able to return to their villages, aid workers say. Mumtaz Shah, 35, displaced from the village of Diwarian in the Neelum Valley, currently living in a tent camp in Muzaffarabad, said lack of water was a factor in not wanting to go back to the village he fled immediately after the quake. “I have seven children and all of them are under 14. There is nothing left back in my home village. There is no water, school or health facility. I won’t go back,” he said.