Drinking water to Gangtok would be supplied once a day for 1 hour to 90 minutes as Tamje lake, the main water source to Rateychu tapping point, has frozen since January.
The department may continue to supply water only once a day for a duration of one hour to 90 minutes, said the PHE department in a press statement on Wednesday. The water supply twice a day will start as soon as discharges at the source improves, said the department appealing the people not waste water at this critical juncture.
Water supply to Gangtok is tapped at Rateychu, a perennial spring water source at an altitude of 8200 ft and about 18 km away from the capital town. The rivulet in turn is fed through snow melting of Tamje lake and its surrounding areas located at an altitude of 12,500 ft.
Water is channelized from Rateychu to water treatment plant located at Selep near Bulbulay, which consists of water pipes running for about 16 km along the rugged and difficult mountainous terrain. The terrain has experienced many changes over the last ten years due to the earthquakes of 2011 and 2015.
“The main course of the river at tapping point itself has undergone changes thereby the flow towards the intake has been disturbed. The water supply problems have been further compounded due to freezing of Tamje lake in the past one month or so. The approach to Rateychu and its surrounding is continuously experiencing heavy snowfall seriously affecting the normal water supply. Water in the pipes has frozen and joints dislocated due to freezing and expansion,” said the PHE department.
“The diversion of the almost entire river has not been meeting the day to day demand of water in Gangtok. As such PHE department has been compelled to supply water only once in a day. It may continue for another month or so, or till the Tamje lake starts melting to discharge sufficient quantity of water to Rateychu Khola,” said the department.
The public were requested to inform the department of leakages observed or noticed in any of the PHE department pipelines.

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