Water shortage hits hard Ukhrul, many turn to borewell
Source: The Sangai Express / Mungchan Zimik

Ukhrul, July 27 2024: Ukhrul continues to reel under climate change impacts with the beautiful hill town experiencing unprecedented rainfall, rising temperature and acute water shortage since the last 3-5 years.

What is worrying is that sections of people believe shortage of water is a natural phenomenon and they take the help of modern technology to solve the water crisis without assessing the impacts their undertaking will have on the environment and resource utilisation.

Construction of borewell has become the best option for the well-off families in Ukhrul to mitigate the water crisis.

However, extraction of groundwater has become a matter of serious concern to the poor residents as they could not bear the expenditure for drilling a borewell.

Water shortage hits hard Ukhrul, many turn to borewell

Digging a borewell costs around Rs 4 lakh to 5 lakh.

In a short span of time, multiple families have dug borewells in their respective private lands for water business and domestic use.

Water business is one of the lucrative businesses in Ukhrul town.

Water supply in Ukhrul, a medium size town having a population of 40-50 thousand, is being done by around 80 medium size vehicles ( DI truck) including water tankers throughout the year and 500 litres of water cost Rs 350-400 depending on the distance.

Seeing the income generation from the water business, the demand for borewell construction has also increased in Ukhrul.

Over 15 borewells were dug in the town without obtaining any NOC from the authority concerned as the district has no policies or regulation on borewells.

According to reliable sources, drilling of a borewell is not possible during the rainy season.

On the other hand, well off families who have borewell have been earning handsome profit as water demand in the town is high.

When this correspondent interacted with the chairman of Rayotang in Ukhrul, George Shingnaisui about their observation on the impacts of borewell construc- tion in their locality, he said that digging a borewell near the spring pond called 'Amoara' has directly impacted the water body.

The volume of Amoara has decreased drastically.

He further mentioned that another spring pond near Amoara is also facing the same problem of depleted water volume.

The chairman further informed that the local execu- tive committee held a discussion in connection with the drying of spring ponds.

It is reported that direct purchase of water from the borewell cost Rs 50 per 500 litres of water.

A similar issue of shrinking spring ponds is also reported at Awontang, Ukhrul.

Chihanso Rumthao who has a pond stated he could earn Rs 500 daily during dry season from selling water in the past but his earning has reduced to only about Rs 200 per day after a borewell was dug near the pond.

From the lay man's point of view, there may be varied opinions if such drilling can be regulated especially in Ukhrul where land ownership is mostly private and the geographical/ topographical conditions are different.

However, rampant digging of borewells is not safe for the environment as it will destroy the sustainability of groundwater.

According to credible sources, the Central Ground Water Authority's criteria says that NOC to extract groundwater for domestic use will be given to only areas where drinking water supply is not at all available and is certified by the relevant agency.

When this correspondent interacted with the Executive Engineer of PHED, Ukhrul Themreishang Marei, he said that only borewell construction is not sufficient as the owner has to construct a separate water recharge point to tap the rain water to refill the aquifer (underground reservoir) .

Marei said that Ukhrul Town requires at least 20 lakh litres of water daily.

He said that PHED supplies 5-7 lakh litres of water in the rainy season per day to the residents of Ukhrul Town and the volume of water released during dry season is about 5 lakh litres.

He said that the people of Ukhrul town have to judiciously utilize the naturally gifted spring water sources.

"Our forest must be preserved to retain water and refill the underground for our sustainability," he advised This correspondent also interacted with Ngahorza Chiphang who is a doctorate in hydrology modelling about merits and demerits of borewell construction in hill towns like Ukhrul.

He said that the attitude of the people must change to mitigate the water crisis.

Behavioural change is very important, he said and added that increased afforestation will raise the capability to retain and recharge groundwater.

Uncontrolled and unregulated drilling of borewells in hill districts like Ukhrul might have a ripple effect on the environment, he cautioned.

Water crises have to be addressed but there must be proper water policies and regulations to extract groundwater for the betterment of all.

This article was written under the joint initiative of Ukhrul District Working Journalists Association ( UDWJA) and the Directorate of Environment and Climate Change, Govt.of Manipur .