Rain ruptures water pipes, dry taps in Gangtok, Sikkim

Gangtok, April 13: Unlike a parched Kalimpong, torrential rain has dried up the taps here.

Late afternoon thunderstorms in the past two days have triggered a series of landslides in the Rahtheychu stream area, snapping the main supply lines to the Sikkim capital last evening. One person was killed by lighting near Luing Bustee. Toyanath Adhikary, 38, had gone to feed a cow in a shed.

Kalimpong, a hill subdivision in Darjeeling district adjoining Sikkim, has been going without rain since October, drying up water sources like streams and jhoras. Some restaurants in the Bengal hill town have also shut down because of the water scarcity.

Six main water pipelines were damaged because of mudslides at 2nd Mile in the Tamjey area of Rahtheychu, the only source of water for Gangtok and its adjoining areas. The stream is around 18km from the capital.

Water from Rahtheychu is pumped into a pressure brake tank near 2nd Mile and then ferried to the Selep treatment plant through six main supply pipes. From Selep, around 36 million gallons of water is distributed to the residents of Gangtok daily.

“Six major pipelines have been destroyed in the slides between Rahtheychu and the Selep water treatment plant,” said P.S. Basnet, the secretary of the public health engineering department.

Four 6-inch pipes, one 8-inch pipe and one with a 14-inch diameter were crushed by the slides while storage tanks in the affected areas have been buried under debris and slush.

The PHE secretary said temporary restoration was being carried out by the department to ensure that normal supply resumed at the earliest in Gangtok.

The department also said till the temporary repair was complete, water would be rationed. Temporary restoration could take four-five days while permanent repairs could take up to almost two months, said the department.

Water will be released one hour each in the morning and evening daily to Gangtok for the next two days or so. The department has also appealed to the people to boil the water before consumption.

Similar landslides had occurred in the area in July 2008 damaging pipes and affecting water supply to Gangtok for almost a week. The PHE department had then rationed the water supply and reached water to the people through tanks.

This time, the supply will not be affected for such a long period, the department has assured.

With the temperature soaring in the plains and tourists making a beeline for the hills, hotels here are worried about the water scarcity.

Although, most hotels have provisions for storing water, a disruption in supply will not give them a chance to replenish their finished stock.

“Although we have stored water in tanks, it may not be sufficient if the disruption in water supply lasts long,” said a hotel manager here in Gangtok.

The Met Office here has predicted “moderate rainfall” in Gangtok in the next 24 hours.

Source: The Telegraph