Solar-powered water facility installed for the community using brackish river water
By Rafiullah Mandokhail
ZHOB: Gone are the days, when the minor girls were seen walking homes carrying water in yellow buckets from the river bank in a remote village. The poor and unfortunate villagers had no other option but to consume the brackish river water. The children and women of the village would walk to fill their buckets and pots with enough water to drink and cook with.
Although the Hussainzai village is on the river bank, ironically there is not a drop of water for them to drink. The dug-up wells have been dried up because of depletion of water table as the area has been witnessing a dry spell for a long time.
Human Development Foundation (HDF) has recently installed a solar-powered water facility, providing water to the community in this remote part of the district.
According to the Team Leader HDF Naeem Gul Mandokhail, the solar-powered water facility has been donated by the Human Development Foundation North America (HDFNA). Thirty out of the 75 households will benefit from the facility.
‘The facility has been installed successfully. Thirty households of the poverty-stricken village have been connected through a pipeline with the main water tank, so they could get clean water at their doorstep,’ he expressed hope.
Dad Muhammad – a resident of the village says, the villagers had no option but to drink brackish water and the main reason behind the prevailing diseases was the consumption of river water. Round the year whether in chilly winter or sizzling summer, the women, young girls and children used to fetch water from the river which was not fit for drinking.
Now we have clean drinking water available at our homes and our children will be safe from water-borne diseases.
‘Solar-powered water facility can help overcome all our odds. Thanks to HDF for its generous contribution,’ he adds
The dusty Hussainzai – a garlic-growing village is nestled on the left bank of the historic Zhob River some 22 kilometers in the north of Zhob town. The river flows from Muslim Bagh and falls in Gomal River. The Hussainzai village comprises dozens mud-and-stone houses with around 1000 population. It is a backward area with low literacy rate and dependent on a small scale of agriculture. The health condition is indeed dismal here.
For the past decade or so, the poverty-hit Balochistan has been affected by recurring droughts. Lack of water availability forced many people to migrate to other parts of the province. In many areas the traditional water sources have also been threatened by climate change and those that are available are often far away, remote and rarely provide enough water to meet the community’ s need.
Communities in the province are now installing solar panels to provide clean and sustainable energy to pump water. Thanks to solar water pumps, villagers can easily access the clean water without traveling long distances to fetch water or spending a lot on diesel-powered pumps, which are not only environment friendly but also cost effective.
