Non availability of water in greater Imphal areas is due to the drying up the two main rivers passing 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.
By Sanjenbam Jugeshwor Singh
Water, one of the inevitable elements of life is increasingly on menace merely because of human intervention in the natural environment. The scarcity of water originated with an increasing of population pressure on land. Believe or not, there is water scarcity in Manipur where many localities in the capital of state have lack of potable water. Climatic change, deforestation and exploiting river beds by illegal sand mining have dried up the rivers and situation is so acute that many of the water supply plants have been compelled to shut down. Non availability of water in greater Imphal areas is due to the drying up the two main rivers passing 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 water supply plants of Porompat, Moirangkhom, Canchipur, Irilbung , Chinga, Ningthem Pukhri and Golapati are facing shortage of water. The water level of Singda Dam 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 reservoir of Iroishemba, Cheiraoching, Lalambung 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 water crisis.
Water resources in Manipur are from both the surface water and ground water. As per land use data, total water bodies of the state is about 65% of the total land coverage. Surface water in Manipur, sources from wetlands, lakes, ponds and rivers, has been an alarming position as they can’t fulfill the requirement to the state in sustainable development. Moreover springs in the surrounding barrel hills and mountains has been tremendously declined with same as only remain for evidence due to deforestation and shifting cultivation in the catchment areas. These water sources are the key drivers of economic, social development and basic function in maintaining the integrity of the natural environment of the state. As a result some areas are now in a perpetual state of demand in outstripping and critical time of the year of low water availability. As the state enjoy summer monsoon, there having wide variation in water spread during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon, showing distinctive hydro feature except Loktak Lake in which water level kept constant to run the existing hydro-electric project. The valley districts of the state are prone of floods every year and damage properties and lives. On the contrary, dry season are encountering with scarcity of water in both the valley and hilly areas. Ground water table of the state is reported at 2-4 meter below ground level in valley whereas for the hill and foothills areas it is reported as 4-5 meter below ground level. Owing to clayey nature of formation in the top aquifer, development of ground water resource is not considered promising on a large scale in irrigation of water supply either for domestic or agricultural purposes. However it can be exploited for local water supplied through open wells dug-cum bore wells and tube wells. At the same time, water carrying capacity of the earth in general and state of Manipur in particular became vulnerable as human being attempts to meet their needs beyond replacement. The natural water course or flow is increasingly exploited and disturbed due to an expansion in human settlement extension of land for agriculture especially shifting cultivation in the hill areas of Manipur, concrete work on earth surface such as road construction and so on. Inadequate in water recharging due to the shortfall in rain but also soil is unable to absorb and retain water sufficiently – partly due to concreted or cemented land development work in urban areas. Unfortunately ground water in some districts of the state has reported the presence of arsenic.
Manipur falls under high intensity of rainfall area of the North East India during monsoon and eventually surplus water too, however there is ever increasing demand of water in the lean season from demographic, economic and climatic pressure. Manipur lies in the catchment area of two river system, namely Ganga-Brahmaputra and Chindwin-Irrawaddy river system and rivers are having deep narrow ”V” shaped valley. But all the rivers system of Manipur remains dry except Barak River, Manipur River and her tributaries during the lean season. Deforestation in the river catchment area of the state because of forest fire for shifting cultivation and firewood also leads to drain rain water quickly into the river after rainfall. Every year state is facing severe flood during rainy season and draught like situation particularly in the months of February- May due to depletion of raw water at source and drying up of all the water bodies like ponds, lakes, moats etc. The problem is further aggravated due to climate variability, as a result the state is also facing erratic monsoon for the past few years resulting shortage of water supply every year. Manipur has 15 major rivers having 166.77 sq.km of total area i.e. about 0.75% of the total geographical area of the state and 90% of the total population use surface water whereas remaining 10% used underground water from hand pumps, tube well etc. as domestic purposes.
In the last two decades, the state has been witnessing various environmental degradation due to some ascertain anthropogenic cause in the catchment area and river courses including mass deforestation for Jhumming in the river basin as well as some portion of the valley. The impact of Jhumming are not felt by the mass for lack of awareness: it is evident that Jhumming / deforestation leading to a number of ecological catastrophes of landslide, mudflow and degradation in the hills of Manipur and causing major health hazards to the people of the state. The entire basin environment of the state gets disturbed due to injudiciously cutting of valuable trees in the upstream. As a result there is scarcity of water for agriculture, drinking and other domestic purposes in the river basin. The state though receives sufficient monsoon rain; we are still suffering scarcity of water due to improper water management. Today, rivers of Manipur are very critical situation to fulfill the water requirement and maintaining the ecological balance in the basin and other associated adjoining areas. So all the user communities in the river basin should adopt a regulatory sustainable policy for water management with sharing and introduced a model which ensures conservation and optimum utilization of water resources for sustainable development in the river basin in the state. Waste water treatment, water recycling and watershed management measures by rain water harvesting , management of water for sustainable to meet the requirement regular supply can only solve the challenges of inadequate water supply in the state.
(Sanjenbam Jugeshwor Singh is Asst Prof JCRE Global College, Babupara, Imphal. He can be reached at [email protected])