Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Sunday launched the Water Treatment Plant at Chingkheiching for Imphal city and the Water Treatment Plant at TV Tower, Laiwangma part II.
The chief minister announced the functioning of water treatment plants by releasing water from the plants.
The plant has a capacity of 45 MLD. With the launch, the plant will start providing water to some areas of Imphal city initially.
The chief minister said that the source of water for the plant will be Thoubal Dam. He said once the pipeline work is completed, the plant at Chingkheiching would be able to provide water to various parts of Imphal, including those areas which were provided from Singda Dam.
The Chingkheiching plant draws water from Thoubal Multipurpose Project (Maphou dam) and it will provide treated water to areas under Imphal East and Imphal West etc and also the Laiwangma plant which has a capacity of 8 lakh litres will provide water to various areas around the plant, the CM said.
“It will benefit the people, solving the water shortage in dry season”, CM Biren said.
There is apprehension about the scarcity of water among the public but they are not worried about the cause of water scarcity, CM Biren said and added that drying up of water sources is mainly due to large scale deforestation. The state government had been in an effort to provide tap to entire Imphal areas by the plant for the period before the rainy season.
He informed that the state government had been working on getting water from various sources including Loktak Lake, Ijei River near Tupul and Barak River from Karong side, adding that projects are being made for the same to increase water sources.
Expressing his concerns over making holes in the main pipe for getting water connection, Biren said that such activities have been causing water dirty. He also advised using water judiciously and not to waste water.
Laying stress on mass deforestation in hills for poppy plantation and degradation of wetlands, he said it is also a factor of water scarcity.
The launching programme was attended by PHE minister L Sushindro, secretary, government of Manipur, Namoijam Kheda Varta, officials of Public Health Engineering Department and Keystone Infra Pvt. Ltd. among others.
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