Residents of around 22 municipal wards in the northern and central parts of Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) area are spending a harrowing time without drinking water and electricity since Thursday.

This, after a water pipeline connecting an underground reservoir at Belgachia dumping ground collapsed.

Advertisement

Treated water from the Padmapukur water treatment plant (PWTP) is supplied to the residents of north and central Howrah and Shibpur assembly areas through the underground reservoir.

Besides acute disruptions in drinking water supply in Salkia, Bally, Belgachhia, Padmanagar, Shibpur and several parts of central Howrah, electric supply has also been put on hold in the affected areas.

The crisis worsened further on Thursday when severe cracks appeared on the roads and walls of slums of the Howrah civic body following the landslide in the pipeline at the dumping ground.

Affected residents of nearby Harish Colony and F Road at Liluah alleged that most of the local roads and slums were badly damaged with big cracks appearing during the repair works of the pipeline. The civic administration has disconnected power supply in the area after an electric pole was uprooted following the landslide.

Considering the severe crisis in supply of drinking water, electricity and cracked roads and walls of shanties, the HMC along with police, have urged more than 1,500 residents to leave the spot.

Locals, this afternoon alleged that they have come down on roads to save themselves after walls of their shanties developed severe cracks. They alleged that the civic body could not even make any alternative arrangements for their shelter.

“How can we live here without drinking water, shelter, food and electricity? We along with our children are spending days in the open, facing untimely rains since Friday evening. The entire area looks like an earthquake-ravaged zone,” said Nikhil Hela.

Dr Sujoy Chakraborty, chairman of the administrative board of the HMC, visited the spot today and told reporters that the crisis would be over by Monday. He urged the affected residents to bear the trouble till Sunday.

“Engineers of HMC and KMDA have been working on a war footing to repair the damaged pipeline. An alternative arrangement of installing another supply pipeline is also being worked out, close to the dumping ground. Normalcy would be restored by Monday. Different municipal bodies like KMC, Konnagar and Uttarpara have been sending tanks carrying drinking water to the affected areas,” Dr Chakraborty said.

Arup Roy, state cooperation minister, also visited the spot and while speaking to a news channel, said, “Natural disaster has caused the crisis and we have nothing to do.”

The BJP and CPI-M have slammed the Trinamul Congress government for the disaster in the northern part of Howrah. “The state government could not hold elections in the HMC, second largest municipal body in the state after Kolkata, since 2019. There is no elected civic board in Howrah. As a result, people are suffering so badly without water, power and food for the past three days,” state leaders belonging to CPI-M and BJP alleged.