‘Illegal constructions, heat to blame for Hill water woes’

SNS, Kurseong, 22 April 2014: Several illegal constructions have come up in Darjeeling Hills after clearing the green forest areas, leading to water sources in the Hills to dry up, councilor of the Kurseong municipality’s water-works department, Subash Pradhan has said.

“Several illegal constructions have surfaced under political patronage at different places in the hills, and most of these constructions have been made by clearing the forest areas.

This had resulted in the natural water catchment areas being affected or completely drying up. This ultimately is one of the reasons why we are facing the acute drinking water problems,” Mr Pradhan said, when this reporter asked him what was happening to the severe water shortage problem in Kurseong area.

The water shortage problem has aggravated once again in the area in the past few days, and people are having a harrowing time fetching drinking water from far off places.

Admitting that the problem has aggravated, Mr Pradhan also said that with the onset of the summer season and the rising temperature in the hills, “the supply of water is naturally affected.”

“We are really concerned over about the present humid and hot weather conditions,” he said, adding that the region is experiencing such weather conditions due to massive deforestation, illegal constructions in forest areas and in areas where there used to be natural water sources.

“All this is happening due to improper management and lack of vision of the previous leadership and the authorities concerned (before the advent of the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha),” he said.

Mr Pradhan also claimed that since the formation of the GJMM-led Gorkhaland Territorial Administration and the municipality boards, several initiatives have been taken to solve these long-pending problems, while long-term plans have been formulated to address the water crisis in the Hills.He added that illegal constructions “by hoisting party flags atop the construction sites” must stop, while political parties must not encourage such things.