Round table discussion on water crisis held
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, February 17 2023:
A one-day Round Table Discussion on 'The Environmental Impacts of the Water Crisis in Manipur' was jointly organised by Manipur University Department of Zoology, Department of Forestry & Environmental Science and Apunba Imagi Machasing (AIMS) at the conference hall of the Department of Zoology on Thursday.
In a release, AIMS, Manipur director Dr Atom Sunil Singh informed that the programme held under the guidance of North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP), a joint developmental initiative of the Union Ministry of DoNER North Eastern Council (NEC) was attended by Department of Zoology Prof N Mohilal Meitei as chief guest and Department of Forestry & Environment Science head assistant professor Dr Vivek K Vaishnav as president, while Asia Supporting Organisation, APOP, Japan chairman Yutaka Agatsuma; Tmh Green director Teruaki Watanabe were present as guests of honour.
Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Regional Campus, Manipur faculty Dr Homen Thangjam was the special guest of the discourse.
The event started with presentations from NER-COMP units in Manipur including Chandel, Tamenglong and Senapati about the activities and achievements of their respective units, it added.
The director continued that Teruaki Watanabe on behalf of Yutaka Agatsuma spoke about their organisations' interventionist activities in Myanmar in the horticultural and agricultural domain as steps towards sensitisation of the people against poppy plantation and deforestation.
On the other hand, Dr Homen Thangjam shared his thoughts on the 'essence' of water in Manipuri civilisation and the water crisis that the citizens of Manipur are facing at the moment.
Prof N Mohilal Meitei also emphasised on the need to learn from people like Agatsuma in bringing about a green world through community participation.
Preventing water crisis demands on voluntary contribution from the communities and assisting government in solving the problem, he added.
In his speech, Dr Vivek K Vaishnav opined that people resort to illegal practices like poppy cultivation because they want 'easy money'.
Thus, ensuring that the people get their deserving basic needs is the call of the hour and at the same time awareness programmes are needed to sensitise people about environmental issues.
The presentations were followed by a round of discussion in which participants shared their opinions.
The event ended with Agatsuma and Watanabe distributing Japanese sesame seeds to the participants, added the release.