Champu Khangpok floating village and ALLAFUM spearhead cleanup drive on World Wetlands Day, seek urgent government support
TFM Report
In a significant community-led initiative, the Champu Khangpok Floating Island Village Welfare Committee, Loktak Lake, and the All Loktak Lake Area Fishers’ Union, Manipur (ALLAFUM) conducted a cleanup drive within Loktak Lake on Sunday as part of the global World Wetlands Day observation which officially is observed across the globe on 2nd February every year.
Today’s community-led cleanup drive covered the stretch of Yangoi Turel Achouba (Nambul River) from its confluence with Nambol Turel at Likla Karong up to the point where it flows into Loktak Lake, and within the Birahari Pat area of the lake including the area coverage of Champu Khangpok Floating Island Village.
The cleanup drive focused on picking up discarded plastics and other domestic wastes thrown randomly into the lake by mindless people, while urging people in general not to defile the lake with domestic wastes and other garbage.
Most plastics and other domestic wastes are carried by Nambul River and are deposited by the river directly into Loktak Lake, turning the lake into a huge dumping site of all types of wastes. This leads to health concern of the lake and the fishing community who live within the lake.
Speaking on the occasion, Champu Khangpok resident Oinam Rajen Singh informed that the drive was part of the fishing community’s contribution towards keeping the lake clean, healthy and thriving.
Stressing that Loktak Lake is a designated Ramsar site and one of the significant wetlands in India, Rajen urged government agencies and local communities to collectively work for saving, protecting and conserving the lake for generations to come.
Rajen further noted that Loktak Lake is suffering from different ailments including siltation, pollution, eutrophication, encroachments, and physical modification which ultimately would lead the lake towards degradation and degeneration, turning the lake into a wasteland.
Speaking on behalf of the Loktak fishing community whose sole livelihood is from the resources provided by the lake, Rajen appealed to Manipur Government to work diligently for reviving the health of the lake.
The cleanup drive was supported by the Bishnupur-based non-governmental organization People’s Resources Development Association and the Directorate of Environment & Climate Change, Government of Manipur.