Of plastic carry bags and khongbans : Script for artificial floods
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 14, 2012 -

Flood at Sagolband Meino Leirak, Imphal on Sep 10 2012 :: Pix - Tiken Thockchom

No one was killed. No case of people getting marooned either and no houses were submerged.

It did rain for hours, non-stop, but it was not a torrential down pour and this is the reason why it should not lull the Government and the people into a sense of complacency.

If a few hours of rain can turn streets and roads into a sea of water then imagine the situation if the sky decides to open up in all its full grandeur.

Take heed, what Imphal witnessed in the morning of September 11 was nothing short of an artificial flood caused by a non-existent drainage system.

And whatever little there is that can be called a drainage system was clogged by filth and plastics disposed non-chalantly by the people.

It was also due to the rampant encroachment over the naturally set drainage system locally known as khongbans. So much for a Government which thrives more on hype then actually performing and a people who cannot look beyond their immediate and selfish interest.

Each inch of water level that rose in the leiraks and flooded the court yards of the people was the price that had to be paid for each plastic carry bags that were thoughtlessly tossed into the local drains or khongbans.

Each minute that went by for the water to flow down the drains told the story of each inch of land encroached by the people over the drain.

Smaller drains basically translate into smaller outlets for the water to flow out and no one seems ready to learn a lesson from the past experiences.

This was not the first time that Imphal witnessed such an experience and it will not be the last either.

It was during the first innings of O Ibobi Singh as the Chief Minister that a ban on certain types of plastic carry bags was announced amid much hype and publicity.

That governance obviously cannot run on hype has been proved by the ever increasing and indiscriminate use of plastics. Judicious utilisation of the goods at hand is not a wisdom that the people are ready to imbibe either.

And perfectly complementing the attitude of the people and the Government is the presence of a Municipal Council which at best has been turned into an arena for political intrigues, where the game of horse trading and one upmanship has been fine tuned.

An extension of the selfish demeanour of the people, perhaps. All the ills or urban squalor with nothing to show for the accompanying benefits of being a city or even a town, that is what Imphal has become today.

This brings to mind the Imphal Sewerage Project which has been in the pipeline for years.

Another case of all hype with no substance and this becomes all that more glaring in the face of the fact that far from delivering any benefits to the people, this project has only succeeded in aiding artificial flood in Imphal.

A case of trashing the concept of town planning and perhaps nothing illustrates this mindset better than the case of the new and swank Assembly complex which has made localised flooding in the areas located to its west more acute and more pronounced.

But then who cares ? Certainly not the Government and not the people. A perfect script for creating artificial floods.