Of keeping the place dirty and smelly : Dirt and filth in Imphal
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 12, 2025 -

Check the unrestricted use of single use plastic, particularly plastic carry bags, the irregular collection of garbage from every household in Imphal, the practise of dumping garbage by the roadside, the shrinking natural waterways or khongbans thanks to the trend of lam khopchinba, are all interconnected and one hopes the Clean Imphal City campaign which Governor AK Bhalla chaired on May 9 took these different aspects into consideration.

A sharp reflection of the undeniable inter-connection between MAHUD, the garbage collecting firms, Forest, Environment and Climate Change etc and this is where any attempt to keep Imphal cleaner demands close co-ordination between the different arms of the Government.

Just how well co-ordinated they are is not known to the public, but it is undeniable that making Imphal cleaner and more liveable should be the calling, card of the 'Government and anyone connected with the place called Imphal.

The sky is yet to open up, other than the occasional opening of the sky, and so dust is the word that comes to mind, and once the rain comes, it will be all about mud and slush.

How does the Government plan to address this perennial problem?

An easy question to raise with no easy answer but should not be impossible to zero in on the factors to explain why Imphal is so dirty.

One obviously is the mentality of the people, a people who have no qualms about dirtying any place that comes within the understanding of a public space.

Litter the place with wastes, particularly plastic wastes and this has been the practise of Imphalites for decades and littering means clogging the waterways or drainage system.

A look at any khongban or even the Nambul river which flows through the commercial area of Imphal will leave no one in doubt that it is the people who are mainly responsible for dirtying and messing up the place.

With a Government which has for all practical purposes given up the fight against the plastic menace, the script is ready to let litters overflow Imphal.

Any task or effort to keep Imphal clean must start with addressing the plastic menace, particularly the plastic carry bags which are available everywhere.

And it is this point which The Sangai Express has been touching on more than one occasion.

Complete ban on plastic carry bags would fall beyond the realm of the possible, but what can definitely be within the limit of the possible is to keep a check and put in mechanisms to regulate the use of such carry bags.

How to keep Imphal neat and clean or at least liveable for the people?

This is the question which should be in the minds of not only the Government but also the people.

And it should be noted why the words, the people, have been stressed in italics for invariably it is the people who generate wastes and litter the place.

And it is the job of the Government to enforce rules and regulations to ensure that people stick to a certain set of conduct.

It was just some time back that a person coming in a car quietly dropped all the wastes, packed in a gunny or plastic bag, by the roadside of a busy market.

The car was caught on camera, the video shoot of which went viral on the social media, but how about those who dumped their wastes unnoticed?

Again it is not uncommon to see the wastes being left to litter by the side of waste bins, which have been put up at some leiraks.

It is this mindset which needs to be addressed to on a priority and the first lesson to desist from littering public spaces must be imparted within the family.

The Government too needs to do much more than just discuss plans on how to manage the increasing wastes generated by each household.

For instance the road block put up on the way to Lamdeng Khunou where the Solid Waste Management Plant is located sometime back, led to piled up wastes at different places in Imphal.

Just an example that comes to mind but the point is, the Government can do so much more to show that it is intent on keeping Imphal clean.

As the first step, the Government must think out of the box to regulate the unchecked use of single use plastics, particularly plastic carry bags.