Taking note of the operative words :: Nambul water : No longer safe
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 22 2018 -

Water of Nambul river no longer safe for household purposes. Nambul contaminated with E Coli.

This is not The Sangai Express speaking but quoting the very words of an expert, the Member Secretary of the Manipur Pollution Control Board, and surely the Member Secretary must know what he was talking about when he said this during a meet the press programme at the office of the Directorate of Information and Public Relations, Moirangkhom on March 20.

The operative words here are ‘no longer safe,’ and herein lies the point that the water of the river which flows through the heart of Imphal was at one point of time fit for domestic purposes.

A clear indication that pollution has taken a heavy toll on the river down the years and in many ways the pollution of the river water is reflective of the polluted mindset of the people.

Take a look around and the surroundings will bring home this ugly reality.

The pollution level of the river reaches its peak after the river meanders its way beneath the Maharani bridge and significantly this is the point where the Naga river or nullah empties into the Nambul river.

The pollution of the river can then be said to effectively start from the confluence point where the Naga nullah meets Nambul river in the heart of Khwairamband Keithel and a look at the Naga nullah from Nagamapal will leave no one in doubt how the insensitivity of the people has greatly contributed to the process of polluting Nambul river, which then empties into Loktak Lake.

After meeting Naga nullah, Nambul then flows just to the east of Waheng Leikai, Keishampat, Khagempalli, western side of Singjamei etc.

The dirt and filth emptied into the river is reflective of a people, who cannot appreciate what nature has given.

In as much as Nambul is polluted, it is also a reflection of a people who have a polluted mindset and nothing can be more tragic than this.

Polluting Nambul does not end with polluting just a river, but ends up polluting the eco-system of the land and the biggest fresh water lake in the North East region, Loktak Lake. All the Save Loktak slogans and measures will fall flat on its face as long as Nambul continues to be the dumping ground of the people.

This is a bare fact that should not be lost on anyone.

It is to save the river that a good Professor from Manipur University has been advocating the establishment of a River Protection Force and written two articles on the need to save the Nambul.

Couple this with the fact that the good Professor has been penning a poem on the Nambul under the title, ‘Cry of A Dying River’ and published every Sunday in The Sangai Express.

The series of poems is already into its 22nd chapter and it will continue, given the commitment of the said Professor in highlighting the deteriorating plight of the river which runs through the heart of Imphal.

As the Professor, in an informal interaction with The Sangai Express said, Nambul river is more than a river which flows through the heart of Imphal, for it carries with it important histories of the land.

Imphal can never be complete without a reference to Nambul and how it played the role of a waterway in the days gone by.

In mindlessly polluting Nambul, the people of the land are in fact rubbishing the rich legacy of the land and herein lies the essence of the line ‘no longer fit for domestic purposes’.