The issue of supplying purified drinking water to Siliguri town from the Fulbari water treatment plant has taken a political shape ahead of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) elections that are due next year. The development comes even as engineers of four departments are in search of alternative ways to resolve the present crisis, arising out of the need to repair Mahananda Barrage in Fulbari where the reservoir is located. Controversy cropped up after tourism minister Gautam Deb held a meeting with authorities concerned and blamed the Left-run Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) under Mayor and CPI-M leader Asok Bhattacharya for the situation.

On the other hand, Mr Bhattacharya has hit back at Minister Deb and asked why he has raised the issue just ahead of the civic body elections. It may be noted here that the Teesta Barrage Project (TBP) needs to renovate two gates (No 9 and 10) at the Mahananda Barrage Project (MBP) so as to avoid any disaster during the monsoons. The MBP is a multipurpose project for irrigation, production of electricity up to 68 Mega Watt and for supply of raw surface water, mainly collected from the TBP at Gazoldoba in Jalpaiguri, to the Fulbari Water Treatment Plant (FWTP) of the Public Health Engineering department (PHE).

The PHE department supplies drinking water to some areas, including the SMC and the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH). “TBP engineers need at least 15 days for the renovation work at the gates, which regulate water for storing and releasing. Engineers will have to release water from the dam during repairs too. After the release of water from the dam, the water level will go down in the pond at the intake point, from where PHE collects raw surface water for its treatment plant.

The repair work will thus affect the PHE work in supplying drinking water to Siliguri,” said an engineer. Notably, engineers of the four departments of PHE, TBP, SMC and Electricity visited the sites, including the MBP and FWTP, after the tourism minister held a meeting to find an alternative water reservoir to ensure undisrupted water supply. However, as there is no alternative at present, minister Deb blamed the SMC for the situation and now engineers have informed their higher authorities about the same and have decided to hold a meeting on 17 December.