Students of two government schools in a Chitral village in Pakistan have been getting drinking water from a stream contaminated with sulphuric acid for about the last three years.
The stream flows across a vast desert called Khotanlasht near village Dizg in the Mastuj union council, some 130 kilometres north of Chitral town. For generations, the water has never grown even a moss on the otherwise fertile land, rather it destroys all plants, crops, etc., that it encounters.
The stream flows beside a primary and a recently-established middle school for boys and joins the river Yarkhun. In this water-scarce area, the water has only helped run the primitive water-mills of the village.
The water of the stream is murky and it tastes awful. Various laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of sulphuric acid in
it. People never use the water for drinking and irrigation purposes despite perpetual water shortage in the area. Even travellers on hot summer days avoid drinking the water of the stream.
The villagers tell various folklore stories about the uselessness of the water, some saying that the stream had been condemned for ever by a saint after one of his colleagues drowned in the turbid water.
The nearby villages are supplied drinking water through pipelines originating from other streams. Both the institutions are situated at the periphery of the desert at a distance of about half a kilometre in the south-west of Dizg village. The middle school is the only institution catering to children of Istach, Dizg, Khruzg, Marthing, Yukum and Pashk villages.
The water supply system of Dizg village could easily be extended to the schools but the concerned officials responsible for the construction of the school-building disappeared after completion of the foreign-funded institution a couple of years ago. The people of the villages said they had been promised that a separate pipeline would be laid to the school after its completion. It was stated that the temporary water channel dug up from the contaminated stream to the school was only for use during construction period of the school-building. The schools are situated in the desert and because of non-availability of water, there are no trees or any other plants to be used as a shelter in the sun.
Local union council representatives said they had taken up the issue with the district government but funds were not available for the project. The officials of the district government and the education department have been passing on the responsibility to each other.
People of the villages have expressed apprehension over the fact that the water could gradually cause irreparable damage to the health of the schoolchildren. They urged the district government, the union council administration and the education department to look into the gravity of the matter and allocate funds for provision of clean drinking water to the schools on a priority basis.