Imphal, February 18 : Even as Imphal city is griped with water scarcity problem � roads in some localities covered with powder of dusty soil, the water bowls of each household remain dry, and cracks developed in some scraps of land owing to no rainfall within the last three or four months � the labyrinth and corridors of the PHED campus at Porompat have been filled with muddy water that has leaked from the water supply tankers trading in supply business.
It has been almost three months the state had experienced no rainfall.
This being the reason, pipe water supply systems, the main source of water to every locality within Imphal, ceased to flush water to the public and remain dry.
As such, the localities are hit by water scarcity problem.
To countenance this challenge, the people had to buy water � the elixir of life � from tankers for their daily uses.
Sagolband areas, Tera areas, Singjamei areas, Kwakeithel areas, Haobam Marak areas have witnessed no pipe water delivery since the last two months, according to reports.
Interacting with Hueiyen News Service on water scarcity matter, Haobam 0ngbi Ichechaobi of Sagolband Meinou Leirak said that two months had lapsed when the last tub was filled with drops of their locality's pipe water supply.
As such, in the absence of public Ponds in their Leikai, the local publics are constrained to get water from water tankers.
The coffer of an individual gets poorer by Rs 600/700 in a month in getting water from the suppliers, she said.
She further said that local MLAs, ministers, and councilors may be aware of the scarcity of water in the localities but sadly there has been no single occasion when they bother to distribute water to the local populace.
She also rued that for families which have no regular source of income, getting water from the suppliers is an added burden.
Potshangbam Ibotombi of Singjamei Chingamakha reveals that his locality is not getting pipe water supply since the past two or more years.
He said that getting water from the tankers for that long has adversely affected the economy of the people.
He laments that the government is not even bothered to ensure proper water supply system thus far.
He even feels regretful of sanctioning huge amount of money by the authority to fix water pipe just to let it remained buried under the earth.
He also wonders how the government is going to provide adequate water to interior areas even when they could not supply water to Imphal areas even sparsely.
Conversely, the irony lurks somewhere here.
Even as the people are faced with water shortage problem, the Water Supply at Porompat in Imphal East is doing a good business by selling around 150 tankers a day at an average.
Individuals have been supplied water at the rate of Rs 100 per Tata Tanker, Rs 20 per Auto-rickshaw, Rs 30 per Jeep/DI Tata.
However, a sum of Rs 50 per Tata, Rs 5 per Auto-rickshaw, Rs 10 per Jeep/DI Tata has been charged by the department concerned from the individual water tanker suppliers, an official from the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) disclosed to HNS.
Interestingly though, there is no agenda to disburse water free of cost to the needy people by the concerned government department as of now, the official said.
He however said that there is a programme to disburse water free of cost to the people in case the state continues to experience no rainfall till March.
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