Imphal, May 1 : Disappearance of jungles in the catchment areas of Manipur’s major rivers, irregular power supply and leaking water supply pipelines are the main reasons for shortage of water in the State capital.
The greater Imphal area which has around five lakh population requires not less than 80 million litres of water daily. However, the State’s Public Health Engineering department’s urban sector could not even provide 50 per cent of required demand.
Presently, Imphalites are getting only about 40 million litres of drinking water from 13 major water supply treatment plants in the city.
“This is because of irregular power supply in the State”, B Khelchandra, Superintending Engineer(Urban) of PHE department told The Assam Tribune. An employee working in the treatment plant at Chinga water supply plant near here said, “we hardly get six to seven hours of power daily.
Besides, another 30 to 40 per cent of the water supply were going waste at various places in and around the city during the course of distribution. As per official reports received here, the State targets to provide not less than 135 litres of water for an individual living in urban area and 40 litres per capita per day in rural areas.
Further, the water level of the major rivers like Imphal and Iril which were the main water sources were reported to be low due to the report of unavailability of water sources at the catchments areas. The water level of Singda dam which plays a major role in supplying water to the Imphalites, has receded drastically because of official neglect in repairing a 1,000 mm valve damaged on October 12 last year.
The scarcity of drinking water has also hit the other parts of the State including Ukhrul, Senapati and Churachandpur district headquarters.
Reports from remote Tipaimukh in Manipur’s Churachandpur district said coupled with the global climatic change, large scale deforestation activities have resulted in acute shortage of water in the Hmar tribe dominated village.
Though the hill slopes of Tipaimukh were covered with thick forest cover not long ago, the precious trees were cut down and burnt to clear land for extensive cultivation of ginger.
Similarly, trees on the hill slopes of Ukhrul district including that of Gwaltabi village have been cut down and burnt as part of their jhum cultivation. No action has been taken up by the State authority till date.
“Villagers burnt down the forest in order to get green and fresh grass for the buffaloes”, A Shatshang,a resident of Ukhrul town said. “I think they (elders) believed that until and unless the forest is burnt their buffaloes will starve”.
Residents of these three districts have been experiencing a warm climate unlike in the past apart from not getting enough water in their respective villages.
AT
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