The winter showers have hardly ceased and now the state is already faced with an acute shortage of drinking water. Most of the rivers in the state are drying up, and as a report yesterday indicated, the Nambul River has no water whatsoever and its bed is actually parched. A drive around the valley area will confirm the situation is not much better with the other rivers as well. Quite expectedly, piped water supply in Imphal city and other townships have is already only a trickle, putting many in a quandary. For the moment, individual households still buy tanker water from private water merchants, but in a few weeks from now, even these private suppliers will have no place to fetch water. Very soon, long lines of people with water containers will begin to form at the number of ponds and other water bodies in and around Imphal city, as well as elsewhere. It is quite ironic that these artificial water reservoirs are evidence of the foresight of Manipur`™s rulers from the hoary past, and today they have come to contrast and expose the abject lack of concern and vision of the modern generation leaders at the helm of the state`™s affair. If the low lying valley is in such a condition, it can only be imagine how much worse the predicament of the highlands would be. Let the state be warned, if it does not take this matter seriously, water is going to be its worst existential crisis in the decades ahead. Indeed, this warning is not mere speculation of lay observers like us, but also has come from very authoritative sources. The UN for example has predicted that 15 year from now, the whole world will be in a dangerous drinking water crisis. If this UN prediction is the averaged-out scenario, it is only natural some areas will be more vulnerable than others. Manipur must take precaution that it is prepared and does not fall casualty early.

Indeed even from school geography text books we know Manipur and the rest of the Northeast get rain from both the South East Monsoon and the North West Monsoon thanks to the rain cloud barrier the Himalayas provide, though the former is much wetter. It is for this reason that the Northeast is considered as one of the wettest of the monsoon belts of the world. If in this condition Manipur is also left without water immediately after the rains, it tells of the planning vision the state is cable of. Maybe we are wrong, but it is unlikely the concerned departments in the state, in particular the PHED and IFCD would have precise figures of the volume of annual water discharges from the two monsoons the state receives. If the total volume from them is known, then water conservation plans can be much more meaningful. The point is, how much of this water is used, and how much of it left unused. Predictably, only a small percentage is ever used, and in a way although this points to a lack of planning, it also means there is room for alleviating the situation, for given the vision and political commitment, the unused water can be made available for use. Our forefathers dug huge community reservoirs towards this purpose and to good effect even today, but now there would be other more technologically advanced ways of doing this. In this, lessons could be learnt from places with advanced water management technologies, such as Singapore and The Netherlands. In Singapore which has no source of fresh water except direct rainfall precipitation, it is said not a single raindrop that fall on the city nation goes waste. All of them are funnelled into huge reservoirs constructed in the sea at the country`™s docks. Technology to recycle sewer water has been introduced effectively, although the treated water is currently made available only to volunteers, but it will be only a matter of time before such recycled water becomes perfectly acceptable for popular everyday kitchen uses.

Another reason for the water shortfall is the depletion in the moisture regulatory and retention capacity of the hill soils in the catchment areas of these rivers because of unprecedented deforestation. This must be contained. The river catchment, as indeed all forests, must be treated as sacrosanct. Yet again, it is also the modern consumption pattern of water, together with a quantum increase of population, which is causing this shortfall. This calls for lifestyle adjustments, besides better designs of toilet flushes, kitchen faucets etc. Let one thing be clear, something needs to be done fast to avert a future catastrophe.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/03/daunting-water-challenge/

The winter showers have hardly ceased and now the state is already faced with an acute shortage of drinking water. Most of the rivers in the state are drying up, and as a report yesterday indicated, the Nambul River has no water whatsoever and its bed is actually parched. A drive around the valley area will confirm the situation is not much better with the other rivers as well. Quite expectedly, piped water supply in Imphal city and other townships have is already only a trickle, putting many in a quandary. For the moment, individual households still buy tanker water from private water merchants, but in a few weeks from now, even these private suppliers will have no place to fetch water. Very soon, long lines of people with water containers will begin to form at the number of ponds and other water bodies in and around Imphal city, as well as elsewhere. It is quite ironic that these artificial water reservoirs are evidence of the foresight of Manipur`™s rulers from the hoary past, and today they have come to contrast and expose the abject lack of concern and vision of the modern generation leaders at the helm of the state`™s affair. If the low lying valley is in such a condition, it can only be imagine how much worse the predicament of the highlands would be. Let the state be warned, if it does not take this matter seriously, water is going to be its worst existential crisis in the decades ahead. Indeed, this warning is not mere speculation of lay observers like us, but also has come from very authoritative sources. The UN for example has predicted that 15 year from now, the whole world will be in a dangerous drinking water crisis. If this UN prediction is the averaged-out scenario, it is only natural some areas will be more vulnerable than others. Manipur must take precaution that it is prepared and does not fall casualty early.

Indeed even from school geography text books we know Manipur and the rest of the Northeast get rain from both the South East Monsoon and the North West Monsoon thanks to the rain cloud barrier the Himalayas provide, though the former is much wetter. It is for this reason that the Northeast is considered as one of the wettest of the monsoon belts of the world. If in this condition Manipur is also left without water immediately after the rains, it tells of the planning vision the state is cable of. Maybe we are wrong, but it is unlikely the concerned departments in the state, in particular the PHED and IFCD would have precise figures of the volume of annual water discharges from the two monsoons the state receives. If the total volume from them is known, then water conservation plans can be much more meaningful. The point is, how much of this water is used, and how much of it left unused. Predictably, only a small percentage is ever used, and in a way although this points to a lack of planning, it also means there is room for alleviating the situation, for given the vision and political commitment, the unused water can be made available for use. Our forefathers dug huge community reservoirs towards this purpose and to good effect even today, but now there would be other more technologically advanced ways of doing this. In this, lessons could be learnt from places with advanced water management technologies, such as Singapore and The Netherlands. In Singapore which has no source of fresh water except direct rainfall precipitation, it is said not a single raindrop that fall on the city nation goes waste. All of them are funnelled into huge reservoirs constructed in the sea at the country`™s docks. Technology to recycle sewer water has been introduced effectively, although the treated water is currently made available only to volunteers, but it will be only a matter of time before such recycled water becomes perfectly acceptable for popular everyday kitchen uses.

Another reason for the water shortfall is the depletion in the moisture regulatory and retention capacity of the hill soils in the catchment areas of these rivers because of unprecedented deforestation. This must be contained. The river catchment, as indeed all forests, must be treated as sacrosanct. Yet again, it is also the modern consumption pattern of water, together with a quantum increase of population, which is causing this shortfall. This calls for lifestyle adjustments, besides better designs of toilet flushes, kitchen faucets etc. Let one thing be clear, something needs to be done fast to avert a future catastrophe.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/03/daunting-water-challenge/