Aizawl: Just 20 kilometres from the capital Aizawl, the town of Sairang finds itself at a paradoxical crossroads. While the rest of Mizoram celebrates engineering breakthroughs and infrastructure milestones, Sairang residents are grappling with a basic crisis: the lack of clean, safe water.
Despite being hailed as a key link in Mizoram’s developmental map, Sairang is telling a different story.
On May 1, the Northeast Frontier Railway completed its first trial run on the 51.38 km Bairabi–Sairang line. With 48 tunnels and 142 bridges, the project has been widely praised as an engineering marvel. But for the people living in Sairang, this marvel has come at a cost.
“Our town has met excruciating water shortages,” said Vanlalmuana, President of the Young Mizo Association (YMA), Sairang Branch. “So often, our water is unfit for consumption. We try to collect water from other river sources that are cleaner. Many have started buying water pumps.” According to residents, the water is not only scarce but visibly dirty and filled with pollutants — a direct result, they say, of unchecked soil disposal and ecological disruption. The worsening water crisis, they point out, can be traced to the NABARD highway construction and the railway project, both of which have led to environmental damage and contamination of vital water sources.
In a powerful joint statement issued recently, the town made its stand clear: it does not want a four-lane highway at the cost of its forests, water sources, and survival. The statement was signed by all major community leaders, including village council presidents and representatives from the YMA, the student body Mizo Zirlai Pawl, and the women’s group Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl. The message warned that the new alignment road would turn Sairang into a desert without water.
Although Sairang lies close to Aizawl, it faces a harsher climate, and its troubles are intensified by water pollution and scarcity. Many residents trace their worsening condition back to the construction of the Khamrang to Selesih road under a NABARD project. “The road construction’s soil disposal buried our water source,” they explained. “The only water we could access after that was dirty and unusable.”
In response, the villagers have come together to form the Sairang Environment Humhalh Pawl, or Sairang Environment Conservation Group. K. Laltanpuia, one of its office bearers, said the idea had been in their minds for a long time, but the urgency of the situation pushed them to act this year. The entire village has joined the initiative.
“We don’t know when the construction for the new alignment will begin, but work has started and some people have already received compensation for their land,” Laltanpuia said. “However, we plan to strictly oppose it. Because if this construction goes ahead, after all we have already suffered, our environment, our water sources, everything we have, will be destroyed. The railway line and the other roadworks have already done enough. Our forests will disappear. We will face more landslides.”
The issue is not limited to environmental damage. A disturbing pattern has emerged in public health. Though there is no scientific evidence yet, the residents believe the increase in urinary tract infection (UTI) cases is linked to the consumption of polluted water. Laltanpuia shared that many villagers have been suffering from UTIs in recent years. “Even the medical staff who visit us are surprised by the number of people affected,” he said. “These development projects have made our water problems worse. When it rains, dirty water from the construction sites flows into our sources, making it even harder for us to get clean water.”
Outgoing YMA President C. Sangrotluanga echoed these concerns. “We have faced so many difficulties since the NABARD project began. The soil was dumped in the wrong places. Now even the water we try to buy is polluted because the pump is contaminated. It has destroyed our virgin forests and wiped out our main water source. The railway line has also affected the smaller streams.”
P.C. Lalrindika, Sairang’s Village Council President and one of the signatories of the joint statement reaffirmed his support. “As the Village Council, we are ready to support the Sairang Environment Conservation Group in any way we can,” he said. “We are already suffering from the impact of developments such as the railway. If the four-lane road goes ahead, we will lose everything.”
In the eyes of policymakers, Sairang may be a symbol of progress, a destination connected by tunnels and bridges. But to the people who call it home, that progress feels like a slow erasure of everything they depend on to live.
Also Read | Refugee identification to begin across Mizoram’s eleven districts
You just read a story that took days to report. Help us keep our reporters on the ground in the Northeast.
Ad-free reading, support and keep important stories alive
Support once (any amount)
Scan to pay via UPI