Water scarcity leaves Churachandpur citizens high and dry; PHED directed to submit reports

Our Correspondent Imphal, June 8 (EMN): Manipur water supply authority of the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) secretary and deputy commissioner of Churachandpur district have been directed to submit reports following a complaint of unavailability of water to the people of the district on or before June 28. Manipur Human Rights Commission issued an order in this regard recently based on a petition filed by social researcher Serto Tondana Kom of Hermontlang village under Churachandpur district. The MHRC has fix June 28 for further proceedings. Churachandpur, the second largest town in Manipur is facing acute shortage of tap water for the past many years, the petition stated. The ground survey revealed that the populace of the town depends on private (water) tankers for supplying of water which everyone cannot purchase, the petition said. Disclosing the new issue of water crisis in the district during a press conference in Imphal recently, the social researcher in his petition said “a resident of the town has to pay INR 250 or more just for 500 litres of water for private tankers which the common people are unable to afford it.” There are 4695 households in the urban area of Churachandpur district which have a total of 57,050 households and a population of 2,47,143 (2011 census). If these households buy 1000 litres of water at INR 500 twice in a week, they must have spent Rs 1000 every week. Ultimately they must have spent INR 1,87,00,800 in a month, the social researcher claimed. Contrary to the ground reports, Churachandpur district has the highest area coverage (51 percent) in terms of getting water supply in the inhabited areas among all the districts of the state till December 2018,as per government records, he added. According to ground reports, the pipeline water cannot be provided to the public from six PHED run supply plants (reservoirs) even though the supply came from its three water source-Khuga,Langva and Koite, due to erratic power supply, lack of pipes and unavailability of water at Khuga,he claimed. “So the time has come for the state water resource department to review the present status of the dams constructed in the state. At the same time, the PHED also needs to recheck the availability of the water at source and its distribution systems to the public from time to time. The public also should come out and voice for their rights,” he urged.