Water shortage in the Third Pole: Bhalukhop Village, Kalimpong

STH has blogged about water scarcity in the rural areas earlier (kindly read 1) and we have a reference to Spring Shed rejuvenation program which was tried out in Kalimpong.

Praful Rao
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling -Sikkim Himalaya

A picture which is our shame : a spring in Kalimpong

 As is known, springs all over the Himalayas are fast drying up and I have been involved in several attempts to rejuvenate springs in Kalimpong in the past (see 1 and 2).
It is therefore shocking to see the condition of many of springs from which so many draw their drinking water, this is just one example.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling Sikkim Himalayas

STH Activities: Working on Mountain Spring Rejuvenation with ICIMOD (&TMI) in Kalimpong - 13Sep2019

Excerpt from NITI Ayog's 'Inventory and Revival of Springs in the Himalayas for Water Security'
'Mountain springs are the primary source of water for rural households in the Himalayan region. For many people, springs are the sole source of water. For example, a major proportion of drinking water supply in the mountainous parts of Uttarakhand is spring based, while in Meghalaya all villages in the State use
springs for drinking, irrigation and for livestock. As per a rough estimate, there are five million springs across India, out of which nearly 3 million are in the IHR alone. Despite the key role that they play, springs have not received their due attention and many are drying up. Spring discharge is reported to be declining due to increased water demand, land use change, and ecological degradation. With climate change and rising temperatures, rise in rainfall intensity and reduction in its temporal spread, and a marked decline in winter rain, the problem of dying springs is being increasingly felt across the Indian Himalayan Region...
Of late, efforts to preserve and save springs from drying up and efforts to recharge them are gaining momentum....'

Praful Rao
Kalimpong District,
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

STH activities: Working to revive our dying springs in the Himalayas

ICIMOD along with The Mountain Institute - TMI (Gangtok) has carried out a detailed survey of several springs in the CHIBO -PASHYOR area with a view to carry out intervention on the same lines as the DHARA VIKAS program  in Sikkim during the monsoon of 2019.
The above meetings were held as a precursor to the actual work on the ground.
STH is the local partner in Kalimpong.

Praful Rao
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling -Sikkim Himalayas

An event of Note : Dialogue on Rejuvenation of Himalayan Springs : Kalimpong Park Hotel, 02Jul2019 at 0930hrs

If any news is dominating these days in India, it is water or its shortage thereof and the Indian Himalayas despite being 'the Third Pole' is not far behind the rest of the country in this regard.
It is well known that mountain springs which are our life line have been drying up at an alarming rate all along the IHR.
The above project undertaken between ICIMOD and The Mountain Institute (Gangtok) is the first intervention in Kalimpong even though several other organizations have also been working in the rejuvenation of springs in the Darjeeling-Kalimpong districts and the stakeholders dialogue on 02Jul2019 is in regard meant to put all on an even keel about what is being attempted, where and the work involved.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling- Sikkim HImalaya

Events of Note : Workshop on 'State of the Cryosphere in the Himalayas' (19/20Feb2018) and forthcoming workshop on Springshed Management (16/17Mar2018) at Gangtok, Sikkim

 You can read a press statement about the Cryosphere seminar here.
Water or the lack of it is perhaps one of the most important issues for us who live in the Himalayas. As such ACWADAM's forth coming 2 day workshop on conserving our springs should be of interest to all of us.

Praful Rao
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling Sikkim Himalaya

Rainfall data for Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya for May2016 and a sure way to kill our mountains

Much of Darjeeling district went deficient in rainfall in May2016 whereas in Sikkim, there was abundant rain.
Richu bridge in North Sikkim was washed away following the intense rains of 15/16May2016 and that proved to be an unexpected bonanza for hoteliers in Kalimpong with tourists changing their destination from North Sikkim to spend some time in Kalimpong.
Kalimpong was almost bone dry and desperate people started drilling the mountain aquifers to pump out water.

A study done in 2012 by a local NGO, revealed no shortage of surface water for Kalimpong town; the real reason for this shortfall only being mismanagement and corruption.
As such there is no requirement for drilling bore wells in Kalimpong in the first place.
Therefore, STH went on local TV and appealed through the press not to tamper with ground water without a thorough study of our aquifer system and also without plans to recharge drying springs.
So far this appeal has only fallen on deaf ears with the GTA announcing that it plans to dig another 10 bore wells in Darjeeling district.

Photo credit : Chinlop Fudong
Rainfall data collection : Rohan Rao, STH

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

Mechanical extraction of water by drilling in Kalimpong : The need for caution (Interview in KalimpongTv)

Water security in the Himalayas will in the future be a humongous problem with documented information that springs which are our life line for water in the mountains, drying up at an alarming rate. Even a cursory check carried out by STH in and around Kalimpong revealed that many perennial springs had become seasonal and many seasonal ones had dried up. The reasons are many, one of them being the changing rainfall patterns which now gives us 5 months of abundant rainfall followed by almost 7 months of drought.
This in turn has led to a severe water crisis in the town with some desperate people turning to drilling for water within the Kalimpong town municipal limits.
STH along with a group of people had voiced our concerns on the drilling because:-
a. The extraction was being done without a proper study of the aquifer system and unregulated extraction of water at the crest could adversely affect downstream communities.
b. There was no mechanism in place to regulate the number of bore wells or the amount of water that could be extracted.
c. There was no word on recharging the aquifer system/springs or the need to protect recharge areas.
d. There was no word on testing the quality of water.

Kalimpong TV asked me for an interview regarding extraction of ground water in Kalimpong. The same is place below (sorry, the interview is mostly in Nepali)



Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

A short film on water issues in Kalimpong.

Rohan Rao,
Secretary,STH,
Kalimpong,
Dist-Darjeeling,
Email - sth.secretary@gmail.com

The good and bad news : El Nino is around.

 

It is now official that El Nino conditions will prevail over the the northern hemisphere at least until Nov2012 and it is widely speculated that this will lead to a shortfall in rainfall in India even as the south westerly monsoon slowly withdraws from the sub-continent.

As if to prove this point, we are experiencing extraordinary weather in this part of world with rainfall again running woefully short in Aug2012 (we had deficient rain in May & Jun2012) and with no major weather system (ie formation of low pressure/depression or cyclone) developing in the Bay of Bengal thus far in 2012.
Whereas this maybe good news as regards landslides in this region (we had no major landslides or casualties except for the Tindharia and Pagla Jhora slides), I shudder to think of what it portends for our drinking water and power situation in the summer of 2013 (not to mention impact on agri/horticulture over the winter months etc).

Praful Rao


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