For the women of this Chitral village, getting water everyday is an uphill task

By Gul Hammad Farooqi 

Chitral: Women in Shali village of Chitral have to go through a tiresome and risky exercise everyday to fulfill their water needs. The women, holding bucket and drums, climb down a 1,000 feet high hill, get water from the river, and then climb up.

Located 50km away from Chitral town, the residents of Shali village, which is located in Arkari Valley, are severely disappointed by the way the Public Health Engineering department has ignored their plight for long.

“We don’t have clean drinking water getting supplied to our houses, because the pipes are damaged after heavy snowfall. We have to carry water in these buckets and canisters everyday moving up and down the hill”, said Zareena Bibi, a resident of the village. Others agreed, urging the district and provincial authorities to notice their situation and take measures to address the issue.

“We have to go to the river at least thrice a day – in the morning, afternoon and evening, to get water for cooking, washing and other uses”, said Bibi Amina, a woman carrying a yellow bucket, which is being reused after the cooking oil it originally contained has been consumed.

The women raised their buckets and canisters in front of the camera, symbolically protesting against the state of affairs.