Morung Express News
Dimapur / Kohima / Mokokchung | March 22
Like the rain fed crops of the rural, Nagaland’s urban sector is slowly becoming rain fed too.
In commercial capital Dimapur, many people have either been using muddy water from drying ring wells, or plugging into a neighbour’s water supply since January this year. Dry months of March and April exacerbate the pain.
With no government water supply lines connecting a majority of households in Dimapur, people have resorted to digging (deeper into) ring/tube wells and bore wells to feed water demands from the Earth’s water table. Some have even turned it into profitable business.
March 22 was World Water Day, an international observance initiated by the United Nations to create an opportunity to learn more about water related issues, be inspired to tell others and take action to make a difference.
“We plan to bore further down into our well to access water. Hygiene and sanitation at home have been severely affected due to water shortage these past couple of months,” said Atula, a teacher and a mother of two.
As scarcity hits life, demand drives prices up—of services, to begin with. Atula has already spent a good sum on first repairing the water pump that stopped drawing water, then getting the well cleaned and now on boring further.
On the other hand, as droughts continue to increase in severity, water is becoming valuable.
At Old Industrial Estate in Dimapur, for instance, many of the ring/tube wells have dried up since January. Its residents have resorted to buying water from those who have water in their wells.
Lanumeren, a resident of Old Industrial Estate, had sensibly dug a 180 feet tube-well, deep enough to pump water up even during dry seasons. Making brisk business, he sells three containers of the water for Rs 10.
“There are more than 10 families in the surrounding area whose wells have dried out. I supply water to them for a nominal rate,” Lanumeren informed.
According to him, there are also people from adjoining ADC Court area buying water from him.
“Earlier, tube wells would normally dry up during the months of March and April. It has been a couple of years now that many people are seeing their wells drying up by January,” Lanumeren noted.
Similarly, water scarcity has also hit a number of homes in Duncan Bosti area. It may be noted that these areas were heavily forested till only two to three decades ago.
Due to large scale deforestation in Nagaland, water sources are drying up, confirmed Er. Kevisekho Kruse, Chief Engineer, Department of Public Health Engineering (PHED) Nagaland, at a World Water Day commemoration by the PHED at the Conference Hall of the Office of the Executive Engineer, Kohima Rural Division, Tsiepfü Tsiepfhe Colony, Kohima.
While groundwater is available it does not guarantee providence in the future, he noted. Even though repeated appeals have been made to reduce forest destruction, people are not listening anymore. “We are wiping out our forests. What are we going to give to our children and grandchildren?” asked Er. Kruse, while briefing people on the natural process of restoring water in forests and the impacts of pollution, deforestation, global warming, and climate change.
Deforestation coupled with mindless and heartless urbanisation has led to the water crisis being felt with increased severity. The Chief Engineer admitted how Kohima is left with little to no options to cater to the ballooning population of the State’s capital.
Even where there is water, though, people are hoarding. A worker in the electrical department living in Nagaland Power House in Dimapur’s Nagarjan said they get water through the PHED but it is irregular. For the past two dry weeks, the crisis has deepened. Individual households have installed motors in their houses, pulling as much water as they can from the common supply source. This leaves little for those who cannot afford motors, and most residents have now resorted to square one—digging wells.
Expressing concern, PHED’s Er. Kruse, while admitting difficulty to provide sufficient water due to scarcity and environmental concerns, has stressed on rain water harvesting and urged people to initiate innovative ideas through low cost technology to solve the problems of water in the State.
After all water, as he put it, is “collective responsibility” and its privatisation will affect Nagaland in perverse ways in the future.
‘Technical problems’ hinder Mokokchung water supply
Access to safe water in Mokokchung remains a perennial problem. Some local entrepreneurs make brisk business during the lean season by selling ‘safe’ water while some private water distributors have developed their own system of water system lately.
While the well off have dug their own wells or invested in bore wells, and despite the existence of several natural water springs in the town, the problem of water scarcity remains unresolved.
Piped water supply to Mokokchung town solely rests with the PHED. Piped water supply to the town was first provided by the department in 1964 when the town’s population was just 6000 and it was sourced from Minkong.
Then in 1988, the department initiated a multi-stage pumping scheme from Dikhu River and during 1999-2000, the much talked about Techipami water supply scheme was sanctioned for an estimated cost of Rs.1000.53 lakhs which was completed in 2005 with an expenditure of Rs.1003.30 lakhs.
The Techipami project, however, has been a failure as the department has not been able to regularly supply water sourced from there. The department has time and again cited “technical problems” for not being able to provide regular water supply from this pipeline.
While the Dikhu project has been abandoned, the “average total volume of water,” sourced from Minkong, is 200000 litres per day while that of Techipami source is estimated to be 400000 lpd but the latter is not regular owing to the cited “technical problems.”
The PHED has seen ten Executive Engineers since the commencement of the Techipami project and more than 15 years have gone by but the “technical problems” still remain unresolved and the people are yet to have access to regular water supply from this source.
Assuming that the total volume of water supplied to Mokokchung town is 6 lakh litres per day combining Minkong and Techipami sources, the people of Mokokchung town on average are barely surviving on less than 15 litres per head per day. However, the case is that daily water supply is not happening.
