SHILLONG: The State Public Health Engineering department has said that the drying up of water sources and the fluctuations in power supply due to load shedding are the twin reasons which have led to the current scarcity of water throughout Meghalaya.
“The water scarcity is due to frequent power cut on account of load shedding combined with the dwindling of water bodies especially in Garo Hills due to large scale jhum cultivation which is causing deforestation in many areas,” PHE Chief Engineer SK Sunn told reporters here on Wednesday.
While briefing about the Tura Phase I water supply schemes, he said that both the water schemes were gravity schemes similar to the Williamnagar scheme which did not require pumping of water.
“But since water is very less, we are not able to supply water. The drying of the water source is due to large scale jhum cultivation in Garo Hills. The situation will worsen in the future if this practice of jhum cultivation is not stopped,” he said.
According to Sunn, at the Tura Phase II which was a pumping scheme the department was not able to pump the water due to voltage fluctuation from 5 pm to 10 pm daily.
“Since we cannot run the pumps regularly, water cannot be collected in our reservoirs and hence we cannot supply to the consumers,” he added.
Moreover, he said that the department was not having any problem with Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme (GSWSS) in Mawphlang which was a gravity scheme except that load shedding was affecting maintenance works.
“Overall the scheme is functioning normally and we are releasing water as usual,” Sunn stated.
He however said only some local schemes such as Nongmynsong and Pynthorumkhrah schemes which were not connected to the GSWSS network were facing problems and here too the root cause was dwindling water in the sources. “We are considering several options to address this issue but the constant hurdle is dwindling water in the sources which like I mentioned earlier is due to large scale deforestation,” Sunn said while asserting, “We need to really think seriously about conserving our water resources. Nature must not be disturbed beyond permissible limits otherwise the solution will be extremely difficult.” The Chief Engineer informed that Deputy Chief Minister in charge PHE department RC Laloo also had a review meeting to take stock of this crisis. He asked the department to find the ways and means to resolve the problem.
During the meeting, Sunn said that he had briefed the Deputy Chief Minister in details the reason for water scarcity across the State.
