Winter is part of lives of Kashmir and is one of the best seasons for which people wait eagerly and even make arrangements for making lives easy when temperature plunges many notches below the normal temperature.
This year for people it has been one of the harsh winters and the cold wave gripped the Valley for more than two weeks and the night temperature hovered between minus 6 to minus 9 and at places especially in south Kashmir the night temperature went down below minus 15 to 16.
Even as per the figures of the MeT department this winter coldest nights were recorded after three decades. Many young people had never witnessed this type of winter which not only left the water bodies in Kashmir frozen but also the people faced crisis of potable water as the water tapes got frozen and water lifting motors jammed.
The biggest cause of the worry was the snow in the lanes and by lanes of the old city and many parts of south Kashmir which the authorities failed to clear on time and complicated the lives of people.
From many years, the Valley people are observing this type of harsh winter when they face crisis like situation, though for affluent people the winter brings less worries but for poor they have more miseries to face.
The situation didn’t get worsened due to cold wave only; however, the poor management by the government that includes failure in clearing the snow from roads, providing regular electricity and drinking water alternatively inflicted more miseries for the common people.
Things have always been tough for the people of Kashmir during four months of winter but this year people faced more impediments on ground.
The erratic supply of power in the winters had made lives of people hell and their complaints go unnoticed especially the unscheduled power cuts, the administration has even failed to supply electricity to the people as per its own publicized schedule.
On the positive note, however, the back to back snowfall will help to recharge the water table in Valley. It will be highly beneficial in the coming summer months to provide adequate water for irrigation in agrarian valley followed by the drinking water to people without any scarcity.
As the winter proved very tough for people, however, its dividends are worth appreciation in coming months. If all goes well this year, Kashmir may witness a bumper crop season and all its depleting water sources may eventually have a new lease of life.
