Monday, August 9, 2010

A man-made natural disaster in the making - Dalapchand Aug2010

 

The Kalimpong town water supply is piped in through three huge 12'' pipelines running along the ridgeline from Neora river which lies to the north-east.
At Dalapchand, the opening of a new stone quarry below the road (Map2) has destabilized an entire hill (as per the local people) as such a newly constructed culvert across the road is cracked (slide1 )and severely damaged, portions of the road itself have sunk (slide2) and also the area surrounding the pipelines also have subsided leading to a situation where water has started seeping out of the couplings of the pipes. Should the subsidence result in the pipelines getting unhinged, there will be a veritable river of water gushing down heavily populated villages lying below - this will also surely cause a massive landslide in the already unstable area. Also it will disrupt water supply for days on end to Kalimpong town.
Luckily, mother nature is being kind - we have had a mild monsoon thus far and the past few days have been virtually dry...but just how will this good fortune last?


Praful Rao

1 comment:

manv said...

Dear sir
u can organise a site visit.
we (GREF) can also be part of it & contribute something