Climate Change and Manipur's water crisis

Sobhapati Samom *

Manipur will be in the grip of a water crisis that could set back the region's robust economic growth if left unresolved. Echoing this an automobile mechanic Tongbram Sarat who runs a workshop at Sega road Thouda Bhabok Leikai in Manipur's Imphal west district said,"We've been missing fish from our menu as we've spent extra money on water".

Sarat's 4-member family spent at least Rs 20 daily (Rs 600 or 13 US dollar per month) to buy 200 litres of water. Thus his annual water budget has been rose to Rs 4000-5000."This is a huge amount for a poor family like us",he said.

A young housewife L Ibemhal(not real name) who owns a tea stall at Kwakeithel Bazar also shared a similar sentiment even as state run water supply agency- Public Health Engineering Department(PHED) aims to provide at least 135 litres of water for an individual living in urban area and 40 litres per capita per day in rural areas.

Ibemhal's tea stall has been spending Rs 40-50 for buying a minimum of 200-300 litres of drinking water daily besides an additional expenditure (equal amount) for her Kwakeithel household consumption.

Like them, thousands of Imphalites have been buying water every day for their daily needs. Thus 7.55 lakh estimated population of Imphal and sub-urban areas including floating population of para-military forces need 101.9 million litres per day(MLD),PHED sources said. Efforts are on to bridge the gap as the actual production from 17 water supply plants is hardly 70 MLD against its installed capacity of 101.3 MLD.

Two minor children on make-shift "raft" banana trunk at the recent flood of October 2010 in Imphal East district

PHED's annual report(2009-10) claimed that though 482 habitations remained uncovered out of state's 2870 habitations having around 2.5 million population- 1163 habitations in rural Manipur has been fully covered with drinking water supply facilities while 1225 habitations partially covered with an annual expenditure of Rs 8330.70 lakhs on state's water supply.

Large scale deforestation in the catchment areas of Manipur's major rivers, irregular power supply,absence of supply pipelines or old pipeline leakage and the drastic changes in the annual rainfall pattern due to global warming and climate change are the main reasons for shortage of drinking water in Manipur.

"We've been making small dams at our intake points to enable us to pump-up river water for daily treatment .This practice has been on since a decade's back", says Herojit,a PHED engineer stationed at Porompat water reservoir in Imphal east district which had been providing 3500 water tankers(10,000 litres capacity)per month in an average to the VIPs including who's who in the state,besides supplying 4 lakh litres of water every day to newly established Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences near Imphal.

Researchers here observed that rainwater and groundwater besides the wetlands were the main water source of the state which comprises of 1820 sq km of flat alluvial valley and 20,507 sq km of hilly terrain which forms a part of the Himalayan mountain system.

Unlike other surface water, state's ground water table automatically rises during rainy season but it lowers in the dry or lean season, they observed. Many tube wells which happen to be rural Manipur's major water supplier, has been abandoned unused due to deforestation,climate change and other technical errors. But there's no exact official figure even though 2379 tube wells were dug up 'successfully' across the state from 1982 to 2007.

"The ground water level is as shallow as just 15 feet during rainy season", state PHED's lone geo-hydrologist Ksh Nimai said. "One can say our ground water potential also depends mainly on seasonal rain".

The researcher also agreed that the state has been witnessing a drastic change in its rainfall pattern since the last few years. "Such changes in the region's rainfall pattern hit the ground water table tool", he added.

Last year,the monsoon has played hide and seek with Manipur taking the biggest beating as the state recorded 67 % deficit rainfall (till July)followed by Nagaland,Meghalaya and Assam with rainfall shortage of 62 %,55% and 34%.

According to Meteorological (MET) Office,Imphal records,the state's annual rainfall was 1161.6 mm in 2008 while 991.6 mm in 2009.It has around 1576.2 mm till December 10,2010. The state had a similar deficient rainfall in 2005 similar to that of last year(2009),as per Indian Meteorological Department records.

Besides the state's hydrological system has been drastically changed due to human pressure, according to environmentalist Dr H Nandiram Sharma . Manipur's looming water crisis is an inevitable consequence of global climatic changes and hence should appropriately be dealt on a war footing. The more the delay the tougher the crisis will get to be. Timely action is of the essence time is running out for these regions to prepare for a severe water-supply crisis.

"We certainly believe that the state will be in the grip of a water crisis and one that is becoming more serious over time," WL Hangshing, Commissioner PHED said."To arrest the crisis we've already framed a Manipur Drinking Water Policy based on a concept for rainwater management and water security in Manipur and it has been submitted to the state cabinet for their approval."

Rejuvenation of forest will take time, so time has come for everyone to promote rooftop rainwater harvest to meet the daily demands besides building up small and mirco-dams in the up-streams of the major rivers as a flood control mechanisms during rainy season and as water storage dams for use during dry season,the official suggested.

The state's water security for its growing population will be really decided by those in the frontline. The tribesmen in hills will have to change the way he looks at a tree as it provides life giving water for his or her family and future generation while the plainsmen in the valley will have to realize that the rivers are not sewage drains or garbage bumps but sources of drinking water.

Manipur being one of the biodiversity hotspot along Indo-Myanmar region, it is vulnerable to water-induced disasters because of its location in the eastern Himalayan periphery, fragile geo-environmental setting and economic under-development, according to India's first climate change science assessment report.

The powerful hydrological and monsoon regime of the region, especially the Brahmaputra and the Barak (Meghna) river systems are both a resource and a source of vulnerability, the report prepared by the Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) under Ministry of Environment and Forest in November 2010 said.

The trend in precipitation in the north eastern region including Manipur exhibits considerable spatial variability in water yield in the 2030s but is in line with the projected patterns of precipitation and evaporation,the report predicted.

The majority of the north eastern states except for Manipur,Mizoram,Tripura and Assam shows an increase in the evapotranspiration in the 2030s. As a result the increase in the water yield in Manipur is projected to increase by 40% according to INCCA report.

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* Sobhapati Samom wrote this for Huieyen Lanpao (English Edition)
This article was webcasted on December 20 2010.

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