No Water For Shillong Even During The Wettest Months

Shillong, Jul 20 : Despite high annual rainfall, it is water crisis that plagues Pine City, especially during the monsoons. The scenic hill city is fast going dry like the 'Wettest desert' on earth Cherrapunjee with water shortage gaining alarming proportions over the years.

Water problems in Shillong have risen due to unplanned use and gross negligence of natural resources, said environmentalist Naba Bhattacharjee. Water shortage can be primarily attributed to the rapid decline in the fragile resource base due to various anthropogenic activities.

The gradual shrinking of this invaluable natural resource is impinging directly on catchments, which are nature's indigenous "water reservoirs". These "store houses" have been exposed to over exploitation on account of the increase in population, deforestation, diverse land use pattern, pastoral and agronomic activities, shifting cultivation, unplanned development and unscientific mining and quarrying.

"All these activities and much more continues unabated," added Bhattacharjee, managing consultant of the ECOnsultant, a consortium of technocrats on environment and forest management. Authorities responsible and duty-bound to protect the catchments, including a sizeable section of people, are presiding over their desecration, ostensibly on a false belief that with high rainfall all sources will remain perennial for infinity.

"Nothing can be further from the truth," said Bhattacharjee. In hill stations like Shillong, bulk of the rain water flows down hilly terrains and enter the plains. There is hardly any effort to restrict such haphazard movement of water by initiating measures aimed at maximum seepage and percolation to recharge the aquifers and maintain sustained supply to the "natural stores".

Consequently, there has been a major depletion of invaluable water sources. "It would cost hundreds of crores of rupees to construct water storage equivalent to what even a few hectares of pristine catchment can store," Bhattacharjee added.

Pointing out loopholes in the Meghalaya Protection of Catchmnent Areas Act, 1990, Bhattacharjee emphasized on a review of the act by incorporating adequate legal sanctions, authority and sweeping powers as far as conservation of catchments and implementation of remedial measures are concerned.

The act should be strictly implemented to conserve the pristine catchments. Besides, people in general need to be sensitized on environmental issues and the immense benefit of rain water harvesting, which are the only ways to ensure that the coming days do not go completely dry.