Water scarcity hits greater Imphal
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, February 24 2011:
Acute water shortage in greater Imphal has left residents wondering where they can get clean water.
The drying up of Imphal river due to the damming of the river for construction of a bridge at Khurai Salanthong coupled with a long rainless period has aggravated the water scarcity.
The construction of the temporary dam at Salanthong has resulted in drying up the Imphal river from Salanthong onwards.
It has rendered the water supply schemes of the PHED depending on the river into a defunct state.
It has also affected private water carriers who sell water by fetching it from the river.
An assistant engineer of the PHED has blamed rampant deforestation that has brought about a climate change in the region affecting annual rainfall rates to be behind the water scarcity problem in the state.
In the previous rainy season the state experienced floods whereas in this season there has been a shortfall in the rainfall rate.
Water levels of all the important rivers flowing in the valley like the Iril, Imphal, Thoubal etc.
have nearly dried up.
The water level of the Singda dam, the main source for PHED to supply water to the residents of Imphal has also been sharply reduced, he observed.
He asserted that water supply maintenance division-I (Khoyathong), division-II (Porompat) and water supply construction division (Porompat) used to supply treated water to the people by pumping water from the Imphal and Iril rivers.
Moreover, the department is supplying 18 million litre of treated water from the Kangchup water supply scheme where the water is pumped from the Singda dam.
Even in the normal season, these water supply schemes could hardly meet the day to day water requirement of the people of greater Imphal area.
When the rivers are dried up, some schemes have stopped functioning, the assistant engineer said.