Geo-Eye

Abstract

Mountains are the water tower house of the world. Himalaya mountains provide freshwater to half of Indian population. Mountains are also among the regions most sensitive to climate change. Some of the most visible indicators of climate change come from mountain areas, such as the widespread retreat of glaciers that has been observed from polar to tropical regions in recent decades. The growing raise of temperature in pre-summer and summer season in the plain areas which becomes uncomfortable condition by which people tend to visit nearby mountain stations. This causes rapid growth of urbanization and construction in mountain areas which leads deforestation. Main source of water for common people in mountain is spring/stream water which has been reported that they are drying up rapidly and bring an acute water shortage. An attempt has been made to understand water crisis of urban areas in Himalayan region. A case study had been carried out in Kurseong town, one of the rainiest site in the world, Darjeeling district, West Bengal. The town has 20 municipal wards. The study was done during 2016 through questionnaire and group discussion. From the study, it was found that 93.91 percent of household depends on municipality supply and 6.09 percent on spring/stream. But in slum areas, 33.33 percent of household depends on spring/stream. There was a huge variation of water distribution under municipality amongst wards. It was also observed the mismanagement and lack of initiative amongst the municipality staffs. In lean season, private vendors also play an important role which shares about 36.11percent.

Key words: Mountain, Urbanization, Climate change, Water Scarcity, management and Private vendor.