Khong Khola River is a small
perennial river near the town of
Darjeeling
Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal, ...
, in the Indian state of
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
.
Water supply projects
During the
dry season
The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...
when the water supply of Darjeeling from
Senchal Lake
Senchal lake, located 10 km to the south-east of Darjeeling, is the main reservoir of potable water for the town of Darjeeling, India. The water body is actually a twin lake: North Senchal lake, built in 1910 and South Senchal lake, built i ...
becomes short, water is often pumped from Khong Khola to the town. In 2002, the
Darjeeling Municipality
Darjeeling Municipality is responsible for the civic administration of the town of Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. Established in 1850, it is one of the oldest municipalities in West Bengal and one of the oldest city administrative bodies in Ind ...
submitted proposals for four drinking water projects to the state government. These proposals involve construction of water reservoirs, as follows: A Sindhap ground reservoir at an estimated cost of
Rs 6.6 million; a Rungdung Khola water project at an estimated cost of Rs 46 million; a Khong Khola water project at estimated cost of Rs 2 million, and a Senchal Lake water reservoir at an estimated cost of Rs 14 million.
Drinking-water problem in Darjeeling
Natural springs in the
Senchal Range provide most of Darjeeling's water supply. Water collected is routed through stone conduits to two lakes that were constructed in 1910 and 1932, from where it is piped to the town after
purification at the
Jorebungalow
Jorebungalow (also spelt Jorebunglow) is a village in the Jorebunglow Sukhiapokhri CD block in the Darjeeling Sadar subdivision of the Darjeeling district in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Geography
Location
Jorebungalow is located at .
...
filtration plant.
However, there is a steadily widening gap between water supply and demand; just over 50% of the town's households are connected to the municipal water supply system. Various efforts made to augment the water supply, including the construction of a third storage reservoir in 1984, have failed to yield desired results.
Notes
{{coord missing, West Bengal
Darjeeling
Rivers of West Bengal