Water..water everywhere :: Unnatural phenomena ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 11 2011 -

So it is rain, read heavy downpour lasting for more than a day or two and poor drainage system that is responsible for water logging at Lamphel. This must be true for it came from a senior official, an experienced hand and a professional to boot.

And it is in this truth that we find the story of a place grossly disfigured, manipulated and exploited and there is something tragic about this. Two points have blended perfectly to add the tragic part to the story of Lamphel and both have everything to do with human callousness and Government apathy.

In the first place we may question why there should be complaints about water... water everywhere in a place which is nothing more than a natural water body ? The complaints have come because humans have settled in a place which is a water body. Lamphel was never a highland or a place suited for human habitation.

Ask the elderly woman casting her net in the few remaining expanse of water and the answer will be forthcoming. It should have ideally remained as it was, untouched and unsullied.

The Government offices, the Government quarters and the other concrete structures that have come up there cannot blend with the physical topography of Lamphel.

A 5 Star hotel in the middle of the Thar desert may be a more practical option !

Secondly, since the Government has nonetheless decided to give in to their baser instinct and transform the natural water body into a concrete jungle then it should take up fitting action to ensure that a proper drainage system is put in place so that water logging does not pose such a huge problem.

Instead what we see is the Imphal Sewerage Project blocking the little available water ways. Human invasion into Lamphel areas started years back and we can see this from the decision adopted earlier to set up the then Regional Medical College now Regional Institute of Medical Science followed by the gradual locating of Government quarters and offices.

This was followed by the decision to set up the National Institute of Technology at Lamphel area. With the Government leading the way, it was not surprising to see a large number of people making a beeline for the water bodies, which lay unclaimed and uninhabited. In short what is a completely natural phenomena has been turned into something unnatural and we have the Government to thank for this.

Forget about incessant rain for days, but a few drop of rain has always been more than enough to flood Lamphel and this has been the case from time immemorial.

This fact could not have escaped the knowledge of the very set of people deciding the policies and programmes of the State and her people and thus the question why nothing has been done to ensure that at least some drainage system is put in place.

With every Government structure that came up, extra efforts should have been put into force to build or salvage the water ways. Water logging in Lamphel has become a problem because there are people settled there and we all know that when people go and settle in areas not suited for human habitation then complaints will pour forth.

In fact it is a bit surprising that the complaints should get vocal only now, since humans started invading this place years ago. The task before the Government then should have been clear.

Either a no entry sign should have been put up at Lamphel or else a quality drainage system should have been worked out. That nothing was done along this line is clear, with the Government leading the way in occupying whatever available land there is and giving two hoots about the need to come up with the infrastructure needed for such human invasion.

On the contrary, instead of mapping out a drainage system what we see is the Imphal Sewerage Project blocking all possible water ways.

Compounding it is of course, the extremely long time it has taken to complete it. The writings on the wall should have been noted a long time back.

That this is wishful thinking is proved beyond doubt by the water that is trapped in Lamphel and which has entered the dwelling houses of the people settled there.

For the moment, Lamphel has been reduced to a playing field for aspiring MLAs to display their skills.