Rivers turning into dumping zone as water scarcity looms
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: March 27, 2025 -

20 tonnes of mixed waste collected from Senapati river on March 25 2025 :: Pix - Chronicle News Service / DIO

THERE is nothing to rejoice over collection of nearly 20 tonnes of mixed waste during the conduct of 'Clean Senapati River Campaign' on Tuesday for presence of such a significant quantity of discarded items in the river and along its bank is testament to the general population's nonchalance on the urgent need to preserve the existing sources of water.

Degeneration of rivers and water bodies is not an isolated problem confined to Senapati district but a state-wide menace as the public view any open and unoccupied space, especially in Imphal area, as waste dumping site.

It needs no reminding that water scarcity is happening in Manipur, many other states and countries primarily due to absence of proper water management.

Regardless of state and central governments building dams and reservoirs, launching rain water harvest schemes, and periodically carrying out mass tree plantation programmes to manage water, the indifference of the general population to the growing threat of water shortage would dilute institutional efforts to address the problem.

Compared to some developed countries using artificial rainfall technology when there is insufficient natural rainfall for agricultural usage, Manipur is unlikely to have such an advanced technology in the near future.

For instance, Singapore is located at equatorial region receiving annual heavy rainfall.

It has potential water scarcity problems due to little rain catchment area because of extensive city construction, but Singapore solves the issue by importing water from Malaysia and it implements very high quality water recycle that includes sewage water.

There are also reports about 30 per cent of water in Singapore coming from recycle plants and that water in Singapore's public toilet is of high quality, even better than the quality of water used by the elite class in Manipur.

Similarly, UAE solves the water problem by getting about 72 per cent required water from underground while the USA has annual average rainfall of 715 mm which is about half the rainfall of Manipur.

But their prosperity and high technology and investment make them one of the richest water resources available for usage in the world.

Some decades back Manipur's rainfall used to be higher than that of India's average rainfall, but the state continues to face water scarcity every lean Season, as existing rain water harvesting facilities are not commensurate with the growing population.

Moreover, with the rain catchment areas getting depleted, water is drained quickly after rainfall.

Thus, while initiative of the Senapati district administration to maintain health of the river in collaboration with the district level officials and civil organisations is commendable, the campaign volunteers picking up such a large quantity of waste on a single day in between Senapati Bridge to Monday Market Bridge merits not only intensification of the campaign but to take more stringent punitive actions against those found littering the river.

As reported, the cleanliness drive was led by Senapati deputy commissioner Mamoni Doley with the support of top officials of the district administration, autonomous bodies, village authorities and. civil society organisations with the sole purpose of preventing pollution of the river water.

However, the campaign volunteers coming across huge pile of waste at specific locations suggests that those settling along the river bank could be among the culprits, have no civic sense, are not concerned with the gradual destruction caused to river species, and probably haven't realised that pollution of water bodies would eventually lead to acute shortage of water, sooner than later.

With several multi-storeyed buildings in Senapati town constructed along the river bank, it would be an arduous task for the district administration to prevent pollution of the river in case authorities concerned continue to exercise leniency.