Wednesday, July 04, 2007

WATER CRISIS IN GANGTOK SUBURBS


Gangtok: Some parts of Gangtok have been reeling under severe shortage of water supply in the last few days.
Taps in several parts of lower suburbs of Gangtok such as Syari, Tadong Dara Gaon have gone dry since the last three days, causing much inconvenience to the residents of the area.
The reason for this disruption in water supply has been blamed on the recent massive landslides at Amdo Golai, which has snapped several supply pipelines connecting to the lower belts of the Capital.
While the residents of the area have been fetching water from other sources like natural springs, some even from as far as Deorali and Nam Nang, some households was managing with the small trickle of water in their pipes till yesterday. Today, however, even that small trickle has stopped.
The agitated residents from the affected areas today voiced their strong resentment against the slow pace of repair work by the concerned Department. “It has been more than two weeks since the slide occurred but the water supply lines have not been restored yet,” complained Sita Rijhal of Dara Goan.
The worst affected areas are Syari, Dara Doan, Tadong, 5th and 6th Mile.
Talking to a local newspaper,Prem Kumar Sirwa, Junior Engineer, PHE Department, said that the restoration work was in progress. “We have deployed more than 25 workers for restoring the supply lines and this may take another two to three days for normal supply to resume,” he said.
The Department is supplying water in rotation and for a shorter duration till the supply lines are fully restored, he added.