According to the official data, around 65 per cent population in Jammu and Kashmir have access to tap water of which 34.7 per cent get water from treated sources and 29.2 percent from untreated sources.
The rest population gets water from springs, lakes, canals and other water bodies.
Medical experts are of the opinion that the percentage of people in J&K suffering from various abdominal disorders, including liver and kidney ailments are the result of consumption of untreated water.
There has been sharp increase in water borne diseases for the past several years which health experts in their reports had mentioned that these diseases had emerged due to supplying of “contamination and unfiltered” water to the people.
A PHE official wishing anonymity said, “The rickety apparatus for water testing, and poor state of existing water supply schemes was resulting in poor quality of drinking water in Kashmir.” He added that in many areas of Kashmir, especially the rural ones, water was supplied through pumping stations that neither had a filtration plant, nor a reservoir.
“The water is just lifted and pumped, without any treatment.
However, people complain that unfiltered and muddy tap water was being supplied to them without any filtration being done.
In J&K thousands of water supply schemes were taken up for execution over the years, majority of them have not been completed thus forcing people to consume water from the contaminated sources.
Official sources said that around 1,900 water supply schemes have been started by the successive governments in the eight years in the state.
While for Leh and Kargil districts of Ladakh region, 149 such schemes have been allotted.