The status of Nagaland state in the recently released report of Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) prepared by NITI Aayog is a cause for alarm. Nagaland was grouped among states with insufficient improvement in water resource management scoring less than 50 points on the index. Nagaland also scored low in urban supply and sanitation.
The CWMI report states lack of data on water as one of the key challenges facing water management, causing sufficient doubt whether the data submitted by Nagaland is acceptable. Over the years, Nagaland has been unofficially regarded a statistical nightmare and so it raises doubts if the situation on the ground is worse than the reported data.
The newly formed ministry of Jal Shakti recently launched the Jal Shakti Abhiyan targeting water conservation during the current monsoon and the retreating monsoon. Where does Nagaland fare in this is a question worth asking.
The fundamental issue is that the existing data that the state has on water may not be usable. Without proper data no scheme can be successfully implemented. The sham reports of litre per capita per day a.k.a LPCD that the department in concern churns out every annual need to be corrected immediately. It is misleading because the LPCD is calculated only for households that have a water supply connection. What is important now in Nagaland is how many households have access to safe drinking water. First tell the world how many households does the Public Health Engineering Department supply water, and then let us talk about how safe the water is. Lastly, for the sake of academics because the former two are prerequisites, let us talk about LPCD.
Nagaland is seeing a decline in water bodies as a result of decline in watersheds due to deforestation. Majestic rivers are turning to waste water drains. Perennial streams have become storm water drains only because there is negligible water retention in the soil. Rivers are becoming toxic due to unabated mining of resources especially coal in the catchment areas. The catchment areas of many important rivers and tributaries of big rivers in the region are located in Nagaland. Some flow to Assam and some enter Myanmar. However, as soon as the monsoon is over water scarcity starts in the state even in its capital town.
‘Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink,’ runs a line in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem on the experiences of a sailor in the sea, made famous again by the heavy metal band Iron Maiden in contemporary pop culture. Although the setting might be different, Nagaland is currently on the verge of such a situation where there is plenty of water and water bodies but not a drop to drink. It is time for a rethink and a water policy is the need of the hour.
