Water supply : Irengbam Hemochandra assures sea change
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, May 17 2012:
Newly inducted PHED Minister Irengbam Hemochandra has assured that he would spare no efforts to improve supply of drinking water in the State within the next few months.
Water supply is one of the top three priority sectors the Congress Government put on the agenda.
Besides rural areas, large areas of Imphal and its surroundings have been facing acute shortage of potable water for the last many years.
Top PHED officials said the key reason for it is the old machinery system coupled with the steep environmental change.
The daily requirement of potable water in Imphal urban area is 102 million litre per day (MLD) but the department can supply only around 70 MLD, that too on rotational basis.
"I'm quite new to this job but I've somewhat received feedbacks from my (PHED) officials about the problems in supplying water.
We will put in our best efforts to make some visible changes to improve the situation within the next few months," said Hemochandra, during a field visit at major water plants including Singda dam and Porompat after becoming the PHED Minister.
Stating that there is lack of coordination among major departmentsIrrigation and Flood Control, Forest and Environment , Power and PHEDin implementing schemes of the latter, Hemochandra said a policy is being framed to streamline the system.
Stating that PHED cannot manufacture water and can only systematically take raw water from all available sources like rivers and lakes, treat it and supply it to the people, Hemochandra, appealed to the people to save and conserve rivers , forests and environment.
On the ongoing Imphal Sewerage Project, Hemochandra said the department is targeting to commission phase I of the project by March next year.
PHED Chief Engineer Haobam Sunil, who accompanied Hemochandra in the field visit, said the department has proposed two major project packages during the 12th Plan period ( 20122017) to sustain the water demand upto 2026.The first project costing Rs 634 cores among others covers renovation of all the existing old corroded distribution network for Imphal city and its surrounding areas , the Chief Engineer said.
"Augmentation of water supply for Imphal city by 45 MLD with raw water from Thoubal Dam " with an estimated cost of Rs 678 crore is the second project being proposed, he said.