The drinking water crisis has hit the residents of the hills as well as the plains of north Bengal.
In Siliguri, the water supply has been affected since Friday because the state irrigation department has taken up repairs on the Teesta canal ahead of the monsoon. Water is drawn from the canal and later supplied across the city.
The repairs, sources said, will take at least a fortnight to be completed. To handle the situation, the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) and the state PHE department have drawn up alternative plans to provide water to people.
In the hill towns of Kalimpong and Kurseong, prolonged summers with little rainfall triggered the water crisis.
Most residents of Kalimpong and Kurseong are buying drinking water. The disruption, civic authorities said, is because the natural sources from where water is accumulated and supplied to the two towns have dried up.
“These days, water is supplied to us once every four or five days for barely 40 minutes each. So, we have to buy water by paying around Rs 350 for 1,000 litres,” said Dinesh Subba, a Kalimpong resident.
Located about 70km from here, the Kalimpong town is spread across 23 wards with around one lakh people.
For water supply, the residents depend on the Bagdhara, a local stream that flows through ward 12 of the town. However, these days, its water is insufficient to meet the demand of local residents
Ravi Pradhan, the chairman of the board of administrators at the Kalimpong municipality, admitted that there was water scarcity in the town because of the dry summer.
The civic body is working on short-term and long-term plans to deal with the crisis, he said.
“We have ready infrastructure on the Relli river from where water used to be pumped and distributed in the civic area even a couple of years ago. We will install a transformer at the spot to revive the pumping station. Once it starts functioning, we will be able to provide water in the civic area at least once on alternate days,” said Pradhan.
He said another drinking water project would come up on the Bhalukhola (a stream which is around 7km from the town). It will be jointly implemented by the civic body and the state PHE department under Amrut 2.0 with an estimated cost of around ₹200 crore.
“Once the general election is over, tenders will be floated for both the projects,” he added.
The situation is the same in Kurseong, which is around 40km from Siliguri. Like Kalimpong, around 60,000 residents who live in 20 wards of Kurseong municipality are also facing a similar crisis.
According to them, these days, the civic body is supplying water thrice a week which lasts for half an hour.
Sources in the civic body said water was distributed from a number of reservoirs located at St. Helen, Eagle’s Crag and Deer Park. These reservoirs are filled with water from different natural sources at 8th Mile, Thotekhola, Aringale and Sepoydhura.
“Because of the dry season, the sources of water are drying up. Over the years, several new accommodations for tourists like hotels and homestays have come up in the civic area. As a result, the demand for water has also increased. We are trying to handle the crisis,” said Subhash Pradhan, vice-chairperson of the BoA of the local civic body.
Like Kalimpong, a new drinking water project has been taken up by the municipality and the state PHE department but it will take at least another two years to complete, said sources.
