Work to sink the tubewell in progress in the garden. Picture by Subhash Chandra Bose

Jaigaon, March 5: Carron Tea Estate has finally got a permanent source of drinking water, 126 years after the garden started functioning.

Today, the Jalpaiguri zilla parishad set up two Rigbore tubewells in the garden in the Nagrakata block amid cheers from the workers. The garden had been closed between 2000 and 2004 after which it was taken over by Basu Tea Private Limited.

“Till now, the main source of drinking water was the Thakuri jhora in adjoining Samtse district of Bhutan. A two-inch pipeline used to bring the water to the bungalows and the workers’ colonies over a distance of 5km,” said P.K. Basu, the managing director of the garden. But the supply was erratic and the jhora used to dry up during the winter. A few wells that had been dug also ran dry duing this time, he said.

The workers had never thought that the drinking water crisis in the garden would be solved. “We had to trek 2km into Bhutan and then climb down 50ft into a gorge to collect water,” said Labanti Asur, a female worker.

Shankar Baraik, the secretary of the garden unit of the Intuc-affiliated National Union of Plantation Workers, said: “Last year, we told zilla parishad sabhadhipati Banamali Roy about our hardship when he came to the area to inspect a new bridge.”

About 4,500 people reside in 11 colonies of the garden, of which 90 per cent are the Scheduled Tribes. “Two tubewells are not adequate, we need a few more. We will approach the zilla parishad again,” Baraik said.