Disruptions in supply of drinking water, electricity and food still continue in a large part of mainly north Howrah and Shibpur for six days in a row, since Thursday.
Affected locals residing close to the Belgachia dumping ground, the sole site for disposal of municipal waste in Howrah city, alleged that there has been no improvement in restoring basic civic facilities like supply of drinking water, electricity and food even today despite regular visits of administrative officials and political leaders, including Firhad Hakim, state urban development and municipal affairs (UDMA) minister and Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the state legislative Assembly, to the site.
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Considering local residents’ plights triggered by severe disruptions in supply of the basic civic needs, Mr Hakim held a meeting with officials of the UDMA, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) at Nagarayan building in Salt Lake this afternoon on how to restore normalcy in the affected areas like Belgachia, Salkia, parts of Liluah, Bally and Shibpur.
Several issues like outlining a plan for restoration of the dumping ground through bio-mining process and alternative site for rehabilitating hundreds of locals staying near the Belgachia site was discussed.
Bio-mining process is used at Dhapa waste disposal site in Kolkata presently.
Sources in the UDMA department said that around 300 metric tonne municipal waste of Howrah city may be dumped at Dhapa everyday in a bid to restore the Belgachia dumping ground.
Though water supply was restored in Shibpur and Central Howrah on and from Sunday but the residents of north Howrah, Bally and Liluah complained about receiving contaminated supply from new water pipelines.
Basic civic services crisis virtually collapsed in large parts of north Howrah with acute shortage of drinking water, clogged sewerage system and cracks appearing in walls of shanties and local roads adjacent to Belgachia.
The situations in the Belgachia, Salkia, Liluah, Padmanagar, Benaras Road, Kona and other areas in Shibpur aggravated further since Monday after sewerage system surrounding the dumping ground collapsed following the Thursday’s land subsidence during repair work in the pipeline connecting an underground reservoir at the wastes disposal site.
Treated water from the Padmapukur Water Treatment Plant (PWTP) is supplied to the residents of north Howrah, central Howrah and Shibpur Assembly areas through the underground reservoir.
