water scarcity in Kalimpong - Drivers halt water supply

Kalimpong, March 23.TT: The water scarcity in Kalimpong was compounded today with suppliers refusing to ferry water to households and hotels to protest the municipality’s decision to declare six streams contaminated with coliform bacteria.

The Kalimpong Water Supply Drivers’ Welfare Association’s protest comes at a time the hill town has been facing acute water scarcity because of a dry spell. The civic body that used to pump water on every alternate day has restricted the supply to once in three days in the past two-three weeks.

S.D. Zimba, the health officer of the municipality, had yesterday declared water in six streams unsafe for drinking as tests showed that the sources contained coliform bacteria. He said the tests had been conducted in 2010 and 2011.

The association said the supply wouldn’t be resumed “till the matter is sorted out to our satisfaction”.

“We have been supplying water from these sources for ages. Till date, there have been no complaints that anybody has fallen ill after drinking water supplied by us. The municipality suddenly decides that the water is contaminated. We will not supply water till the matter is sorted out to our satisfaction,” said Samuel Rai, the president of the association.

Zimba said the residents were only advised not to drink water from the contaminated sources. “We didn’t put a stop to the sale of water from these sources that the people could use for washing and other purposes,” he said.

Rai said the association had doubts about the reliability of the water analysis report. “The municipality says the analysis was done in 2010 and 2011. Why are they making the report public now? The civic body has to come clean on this. We are not against conducting a proper test of the water we supply to the people.”

The association operates under the umbrella of the Janmukti Chalak Mahasangh, an affiliate of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

The Kalimpong residents are now suffering with the drivers going on strike and the civic body restricting the pumping to once in three days.

Sharad Rai, the manager of Tribeni Lodge at Thanadara, said: “I have had to turn away guests as there is no water in our lodge. We require about 2,000 litres of water to run the lodge when it is packed.”

The cost of 1,000 litres of water is between Rs 200 and Rs 300 depending on the distance from the source to the destination.

Rai said 35 vehicles collected water from the streams and supplied it to consumers.

“Each vehicle carries 1,000 litres of water and makes four trips a day on an average. That means we supply around 1.4 lakh litres of water daily.”

The people depend on the private vehicles to a large extent as the municipality’s rationed water supply can’t meet their needs.

Ganga Maya Gurung, the vice-chairperson of the municipality, said the civic body would soon hold a meeting with the drivers’ association to sort out the matter. “The matter will be settled amicably,” she said.