Residents wait hours for access to drinking water in Ghor

GHOR (SW): Firooz Koh, the center of Ghor, is a small city on the slopes of the Safid Koh (White Mountain) and Siah Koh (Black Mountain), in which the residents still do not have access to drinking water due to poor water management by the government.

The shortage of drinking water has caused a lot of people to travel a long distance every day in the cold weather, waiting for long hours in the queue in order to get their turn to fill their buckets with drinking water.

Although many NGOs and some water supplying companies have dug deep and semi-deep wells to provide safe drinking water to people, however, these efforts, in addition, that not provided them with safe drinking water, increased their problems as well.

Noor Ahmad, a resident of Ghor’s Immigrant Township told Salam Watandar that he doesn’t have access to drinking water, and waits for hours every day in long queues in order fill his bucket with drinking water and take it home. He said that this problem has always been there, however, during the winter times it increases. He called on the government to solve their problem.

According to the residents of Ghor, although many deep wells have been dug around their houses, due to drought, these wells have been without water for a long time.

Mohammad Naeem, another resident of Immigrant Township said that they have complained many times to the local authorities, provincial council, and other institutions, but to no avail.

According to the head of Directorate of Hariroad Zone, the Ministry of Energy and Water had been working to establish a water supply system in the city of Firooz Koh before; however, these efforts were abortive due to impediment by a number of the powerful people in the area.

Ghulam Nasir Khaze, Governor of Ghor, confirmed the water crisis in Ghor and said that they have not been able to overcome these problems due to lack of electricity and water resources in this area.

Ghor residents told Salam Watandar that the private sector has already installed boreholes and water pipes in some parts of the city of Firooz Koh, and have dug deep wells; however, it didn’t prove to be successful.

ENDS