A major landslide along the Tizu Bridge–Yezami Road on July 20 has extensively damaged Zunheboto’s lone water supply mainline, cutting off the town’s primary source of treated water and leaving residents without the dependable supply they have relied on for years. Sub-Divisional Officer, PHED Zunheboto, Er Beto T Jimo, told the media on July 25 that restoration is likely to take more than a month because both the 150 mm main pipeline and the road access have been severely damaged and the site is currently inaccessible.
The damaged transmission line carries water from the treatment plant at Melahu through Ngozubo and Melahu villages into Zunheboto town. The seamless, high-pressure pipeline runs about 37 kilometres to a PHED reservoir tank at North Point colony with a capacity of 4 lakh litres (400,000 litres). Jimo said this pipeline is the town’s only source of piped water and there is no alternative supply available.
PHED engineers reported that a large portion of the land where the pipeline was laid has been washed away and the Yezami Road is completely destroyed. Teams worked for three to four days to recover sections of the buried and washed-away pipe, retrieving 10 sections so far, but many more are missing. Jimo said the department needs about 40 to 50 sections of the same specialised pipe to repair the line; these pipes were originally procured from a supplier in Bombay (Mumbai) because they can withstand the high transmission pressure, and ordinary pipes are unsuitable replacements.
Because the original alignment is now unstable, PHED cannot reinstall the pipeline along the same route. Officials must identify a new alignment to divert the line, but the proposed diversion passes through a coffee plantation, adding logistical and land-use challenges. Jimo emphasised that repair work cannot begin until the damaged road is cleared and access to the affected site is restored, and until the specialised pipe sections are available.
PHED has appealed to all consumers and the public to remain patient and cooperate while restoration efforts continue, noting that work is being prioritised despite difficult terrain and supply constraints. As previously reported by The Morung Express on January 31, there are roughly 1,300 PHED water consumers in Zunheboto on a meter-based billing system, underscoring the wide impact of the outage.
Original Source: https://www.morungexpress.com/zunhebotos-lone-water-pipe-destroyed-in-landslide
Category: Morung Exclusive , Nagaland
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Publish Date: 2026-07-25 22:38:00
