Nambul: River of Sorrow
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: April 05, 2012 -

Natural flow of Nambul River in the heart of Imphal chock-a-block with garbages - Pix :: Hueiyen Lanpao

To state simply, the importance of Nambul River, which runs through the heart of Imphal, in maintaining the environment of Manipur is something that could never be overlooked at the time of planning the capital city.

Originating from Kangchup hill ranges, located at an elevation of 1830 m above sea level at the confluence of Imphal West, Senapati and Tamenglong districts, Nambul is made of around 30 smaller streams on its upper course, all of which finally fall into Loktak lake, the largest fresh water lake in North East India which plays a vital role in controlling the ecological balance of the region.

However, in the wake of urbanization and its resultant effects, Nambul has become one of the most populated rivers, especially once it starts entering the main market area of Imphal.

The most polluted part of the river in its 10 kilometre stretch beginning from Hump Bridge of Khwairamband Market till it reaches Keishamthong Bridge, which is hardly a distance of 1.5 km.

In fact, in this portion, Nambul river lost all its characteristic features of a river and appears more like a long dumping pit.

Apart from polluting Loktak lake, lumps of waste materials carrying down, especially during rainy season, obstruct the natural water flow directed to Nambul river from its tributaries, thus leading to overflowing of the river and breaching of its embankment causing water logging in low lying areas.

Taking into consideration of this fact, the Government of Manipur has taken up a project for giving a new lease of life to Nambul river, the river of sorrow of Manipur.

In this backdrop, the step taken up by the state government to arrest people dumping garbages into Nambul river is appreciable.

It is said that police personnel in uniform as well as in civvies would be deployed round the clock between Keishampat and Nagamapal area to restrain and check throwing garbages and other waste materials into the river by the passers-by and local residents.

Even if such measures are essential to save Nambul river from being converted into a garbage pit, certain arrangements should be put in place beforehand to make the efforts of the government and its police force more meaningful and successful.

A case in point is the urgent attention that needs to be given to the garbage disposal bins installed along the river by Imphal Municipal Council. These garbage disposal bins have become almost useless since the garbage disposal vans of the Municipality do not come to collect them regularly.

Such irregularity is one of the main factors for the people residing along the river to dump garbages and other domestic wastes into the river. It has also been seen that the size of the garbage bins provided are too small in comparison to the number of households using them, thus they become overflowing in no time.

Without taking into consideration of these two little but important aspects, the government decision to arrest people dumping garbages into Nambul river would be nothing more than the proverbial 'putting the cart before the horse'.