The rain from May 28 to Jun 3 : Where have the khongbans gone ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 05, 2025 -

The rain has thinned down, if not altogether stopped, but there are still areas which are waterlogged, especially in Imphal East district.

Wonder how long it will take for the clogged water to drain out but this is an inconvenience that the people have to face and learn to bear.

How long the Government will take to work out the losses suffered by the people is not yet known, but the people and Manipur have suffered immense loss with water from the overflowing rivers and breached embankments wreaking havoc all over the place.

Houses have been destroyed or damaged substantially while fields have been inundated.

How much this will impact on the crop productivity this year is also something that needs to be worked out and this is besides the loss of livestocks.

For the salaried (Govt) class putting things together after the deluge may not pose much of an obstacle but to those who have to rely on small trade things will definitely be hard.

This is apart from the daily wage earners and those who make a living by running a small leikai shop or a chicken/meat centre, or open a leikai tea stall selling tea and other edibles.

It is a double blow in the sense that this was the second flood in two years, the first one having hit Manipur in 2024 thanks to Cyclone Remal.

Getting back on one's feet, this is the question that must be haunting, especially those whose houses have either been swept away or substantially damaged in the flood water.

And how does the Government intend to help the unfortunate folks is the question that must already be doing the round amongst those who have been hit the hardest.

Only the coming days will unravel the reality but it is encouraging to see that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reached out to the flood affected folks, assuring all possible assistance.

This was conveyed to the Chief Ministers of the North Eastern States, while in the case of Manipur the assurance was passed on to Governor AK Bhalla.

This is about the immediate steps that have to be taken up, but has Manipur and the PR regime learnt any lesson from the devastating flood?

True no force can stop the sky from opening up but surely there are lots of things that can be done to minimise the damages inflicted by the flood.

What is it that the Government could have taken up ?

More importantly did the Government learn anything from the flood of 2024? The lessons learnt or not learnt could perhaps be seen in the manner in which river banks started caving in at different spots after the sky opened up on May 28 and battered Manipur till June 3.

Rivers overflowing is also another point that should be noted.

And even as Manipur has started getting up after the debilitating blows delivered by the non-stop rain, the stage must be set to observe the World Environment Day.

And plastic pollution will obviously figure high in any of the functions to be held on June 5.

To any thinking group of people, the day should be the ideal time to reflect on how the people themselves have contributed their mite in making things worse when the sky opened up and battered Manipur for days.

As noted in an earlier commentary here, it was not always like this. Manipur had witnessed days of rain earlier but the rain never had the same devastating impact as it does now.

Those who grew up in the 70s, 80s and early 90s will still remember how the rain water used to be drained off smoothly via the natural waterways, the leikai and leirak khongbans.

Today this is no longer the case and in many leiraks and leikais it is no longer a case of water flowing into the khongbans but water flowing out from the khongbans.

Once natural waterways over which wooden planks or bamboos tied together were placed to enable movement of people, today all khongbans can be crossed with just a step.

Time was when it was possible for womenfolk to lay their fishing net into a khongban and this should give everyone a glimpse of how man in their greed to encroach upon anything that comes within the understanding of public land have stifled the very route which is there to take away the excess water after a heavy rain.

These are points which everyone should have woken up to a long time back, but given the mindset of the people here, this may just be asking for too much.

And herein lies the tragedy of Manipur.