Manipur faces water scarcity, efforts are on to redress situation

Believe it or not, there is water scarcity in Manipur where many localities in the capital of the state have lack of potable water.

Climatic change, deforestation and exploiting of river beds by illegal sand mining have dried up the rivers and the situation is so acute that many of the water supply plants have been compelled to shut down .

Non-availability of water in greater Imphal area is due to the drying up of the two main rivers passing through the area. The volume of water in the Imphal and Iril rivers has gone down drastically on account of which there is a great difficulty in drawing up raw water for treatment.

The Public Health Engineering (PHE), Minister , I. Hemochandra Singh, after a series of visits to water supply schemes in and around the state capital, admitted that the city is facing an alarming shortage of water .

He said that if the need arises, water from the Loktak lake will be treated and supplied to the people. The government has a contingency plan.

Hemochandra Singh said that there is degradation of the catchment areas and the water table l is dwindling .The minister along with a team, including officials, visited several water supply plants of including those of Porompat, Canchipur, Singda Dam and Koirengei.

The water supply plants of Porompat, Moirangkhom, Canchipur, Irilbung, Chinga, Ningthem, Pukhri and Golapati are facing shortage of water.

The water level of Singda Dam in the city has also fallen quite low. On account of the fast depleting volume of water, Singda water treatment plant is unable to supply normal volume of potable water to the reservoirs of Iroishemba, Cheiraoching ,Lalambung Assembly and Langol.

There is no solution in sight until the volume at the main water sources improves. If there is no rainfall in the coming weeks, the state is likely to face a water crisis.

Large cracks have been formed at the riverbed of Imphal river following obstruction to its natural flow, thereby affecting the functioning of major water supply schemes in the state.

The State had witnessed thundershowers and hailstorm during the past few days but the precipitation could not fill up the riverbeds of Imphal and Iril rivers, which are the sources of water for major water supply schemes in the state.

The climate change in Manipur is the cause of shortage of water. Last year there was no problem like this. I think the government is trying to solve this problem," said a resident, Nordan.

Most parts of Imphal area including Thongju, Khongman, Bashikhong and Okram Chuthek are looking for timely measures to fight the shortage.

Restrictions have been imposed on private water carriers, there is need for a long term solution like aforestation and conserving of water bodies.