Imphal, June 14 2009: Scarcity of water has hit health and sanitation of nearly 7000 villagers in Lamlai and Chalou area in Manipur's Imphal East district.

Water and sanitation are part of the basic needs every human being should have access to.

"To be very frank,we don't even have enough water to flush our toilet regularly",feels a villager in Lamlai Khundol.

In view of the development, the villagers have started to little water available in and around the ponds.

And now there are complaints of water borne diseases including skin diseases among some villagers.

"We're facing an unusual skin disease in our family",I Sanatomba,General Secretary of Lamlai Students Ideal Club said.

Echoing a similar feeling, Luwangsagbam Ibemcha, a housewife in Lamlai Awang Leikai,"Due to scarcity of water since the last 10 years,we couldn't clean up our floors regularly".

As a result Ibemcha,mother of 4 kids is also afraid of outbreak of any communicable water borne diseases in her village.

The World Health Organization estimates that improved water and sanitation could help reduce the global disease burden by 9 percentage points.

The diseases that are related to a lack of appropriate water supply and sanitation are diarrhoeal diseases (39% of the total), malnutrition (21%), malaria (14%), and drownings (6%).Diarrhoeal disease could be virtually eliminated with the provision of clean water and sanitation.

Unlike Lamlai,the situation is not pronounceable in the neighbouring Chalou village as both men and women of the village were seen busy in every evening in collecting drinking water from 70,000 gallon litres capacity Lamlai Lai reservoir.

Saikhom Rajen, President of Chalou Youth Union Club said, "Now we depend on Lamlai reservoir as we don't have any proper pond or water tanks in our village".

So the chalou village want a separate reservoir.

Last year PHED Minister T N Haokip had reportedly assured that one water reservoir would be set up at Chalou after the submission of a memorandum by Chalou Village Development Committee.But they're yet to get any response till date.

Earlier, Lamlai and Chalou were supplied potable water from the Pungdongbam Water Supply Plant.

But it has been long time back when the main pipes were dug up to be replaced with new and larger pipes.

But there has been no replacement as yet on the other sides of the two villages.

"Some of the pipes were dug up and used in the construction of a community hall",alleges Sanatomba of Lamlai Students Ideal Club.

Protesting the government's failure to provide safe drinking water in Lamlai and Chalou area for the last 10 years and urging for laying new pipes and completion of the newly constructed water reservoir of Pungdongbam Water Supply Plant,residents of these areas have once shut Lamlai Bazar and staged a sit in demonstration on June 8 last under the joint aegis of Lamlai Students' Ideal Club,Lamlai Development Committee and Meira Paibis of Lamlai and Chalou.

N Bipin,Executive Engineer of Imphal East district who physically superivising the laying of new pipelines and other construction works told this reporter that effort are on to provide safe drinking water for the Lamlai and Chalou area through 90,000 litres capacity Pungdongbam Water Supply Plant within a month's time tentatively.

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