Aizawl: In early 2022, Romalsawma, an environmentalist, popularly known as Roma, became the first person to scale across Tlawng, the largest river in the state. Over 16 days, he completed the feat amidst near-death experiences and blisters. Roma did not take up the challenge to set a state record. He did it to show the reality: Mizoram’s water resources are drying out.
In an interview, Roma told EastMojo, “We can see from the PHED (Public Health Engineering Department) data that the Tlawng river level is depleting every year. Depletion levels were especially high in 2019, 2020 and 2021. In 2019, the pumping capacity was 74 million litres per day. The next year, it fell to about 60-65 million litres and in the next year, it was down 35. When I traversed across the river in March, I could see that in Lunglei Zobawk, the water had dried up. It is high time that we start showing concern because both Lunglei and Aizawl are dependent on the Tlawng river. We could run out of our main water source at any time, especially with our smaller riverine drying up. It is possible that in a short while, disputes may start arising due to the fight for water.”
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In his journey across the river, Roma found that spoils from construction activities had damaged the rivers.
“In Bairabi, we can see the damage done to the river due to construction activities. Its effects could be seen from Sairang to Bairabi: the water is dirty and smells of diesel and other matters. All kinds of waste are floating in the river. Its effects are very drastic. Some areas look like small markets decorated with waste. A lot of money would have to be incurred even to make the water available for drinking. It’s hard to say exactly how much, but there are many whose livelihood depends on river life: two-thirds of the streams have dried up from what I could see,” he said.
The hilly terrain of Mizoram is a worthy tourist attraction, but it is a disadvantage in terms of water resources. In hilly areas, there are three ways to access water: surface run-off, run-off through rooftops and natural water springs. During monsoon, water is plentiful, and the water resources management lasts through winter but come summer, water resources start drying up. Increasing population and pollution levels have added to the impending water crisis.
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Sailova Rokhum, EE, Treatment and Pipeline in-charge of the PHE department, told EastMojo, “We can pump the required water as of now. However, our water sources are depleting each year due to high levels of environmental damage. Though we have sufficient supply to survive for now, in the next ten years, there will be acute scarcity if the resource depletion continues at this rate.”
Currently, PHE supplies clean water to 97,079 households out of 1, 34, 028 households in Mizoram which total around 72% of the total households. They plan to cover the rest 36, 949 families by July of this year.
As Rokhum also takes care of the water treatment plant, he told EastMojo, they face challenges in the treatment too, though at a minor level, “We can do the treatment. But one big challenge we face is soil spills. Many people who are constructing houses, discard their soil spills in the river banks, which makes it difficult to treat water. It was around five years back that we started facing this problem, and now we have to turn off the treatment plant for an hour or so every day to manage it.”
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In Mizoram, the water is billed at a minimum charge of 200. For 0-5000 litres, residents have to pay Rs 200, and the amount keeps increasing if more than 5000 litres are required. The PHE department releases a supply to the households in each locality, every week or every other week. However, the supply is sometimes irregular in the off-season, which becomes a problem for those taking up construction activities as their requirements surpass the amount supplied.
Reuben Lalmalsawma, a resident of Venghlui who is currently constructing a house told EastMojo, “Water is needed for the construction workers as well as the ongoing construction work, so it is quite difficult to manage. We are putting all our efforts into using water and that is helping us survive somehow.”
The irregularity of water supply hits hard, especially for Mizos who formerly lived in metropolitan cities. Irene Lalnunpuii, a former resident of Chennai, told EastMojo, “When we were in Chennai we received water supply every morning. But here, it is quite different. At one time, we had not received supply for two weeks and we were running out. I had to call the local supplier as we were about to have guests and were in urgent need of water. We were told that we would face water problems but when the reality hit us, we struggled a bit and had to make some adjustments.”
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According to the Ground Water Depletion Survey Report 2020 prepared by the Groundwater Resources Assessment Cell of the PHE department, surface water availability is declining rapidly. The report states: “the availability of surface water in the state is declining owing to deforestation, urbanization and other anthropogenic activities. Potential sources of water supply viz., streams, rivulets and rivers start drying up causing alarming consequences. This erratic and declining availability of surface water affects domestic and agricultural water supply in recent years.”
The government officials in the state are also concerned about the increasing pollution levels, H Duhkima, Director of Project Management Unit, PHED, told EastMojo, “The main problem is the summer months, during this time there is source depletion but the water requirement is the same. Rainfall is the main factor for recharging. If there is no rainfall, the water floor becomes low. To prevent this, it is important to practise the preservation and conservation of forests. There is always the impact of pollution, when there is a large volume of water in the river, it takes away the pollution. But when there is a low flow, the pollution is stagnant. So it becomes difficult to treat the water.”
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Pollution increase is inevitable because as the population increases, we consume and demand more, Duhkima said. “The trees and bamboo, the forest cover that should be protecting our forest are being destroyed. There needs to be increased awareness among the public. Even the Central YMA and PHE took initiatives recently in the Tlawng river. We can find that a lot of people are throwing truck-full of waste in ravines which are away from the public eye. We try hard to look clean and holy in people’s eyes, but when people are not looking we are not clean. Our cleanliness has to reach beyond our houses to places where people cannot see us. In our houses, our utensils are glistening but when it comes to discarding waste, we are negligent. We have to be united in this effort. A few families cannot do it, and even if one family is negligent, the whole community suffers…The public play the most important part. Animals do not pollute the water, but the ones who need it the most, human beings are the ones who are polluting it,” he added.
The alarming fall in water supply, coupled with the highest rate of desertification in India, means that unless the state and central government start addressing this problem on a war-footing, the state would very well be facing an uncertain and parched future.
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