For years Umiam lake has been the centre of attraction. Tourist locals admire, click pictures and call it beautiful. We did not see what lies beneath it. A reservoir choking on our own waste.
The Green-Tech Foundation and the villagers of Mawdun chose a different viewpoint. Not the viewpoint for tourists, but the chokepoint at Wah Iap-Ngor — where Wah Umkhrah and Wah Umshyrpi meet and dump Shillong’s shame before it spills into Umiam.
That choice of location is what makes this clean-up different. It is an interception. It is an admission that the lake cannot be saved. It has to be saved in Shillong.
GTF has put a number to our neglect. More than 40,000 cubic metres of sediment every year. Other official studies put it far higher, at five lakh cubic metres. Either way, the science is settled.
Umiam was built to live for 100 years. Siltation studies by Water and Power Consultancy Services showed that in just 36 years, from 1965 to 2001, the lake had already lost 28.9% of its dead storage. In 2019, a Legislative Assembly committee warned that its effective life could end as early as 2024. We are in 2026.
We forget that Umiam is not just for tourism and boating. It gives 172 MW power to Meghalaya. It is important for our electricity and water. But we are using it like a dustbin and a backdrop for boating.
We have tried gimmicks. A solar-powered AI trash-collecting boat that can pick 200 kg a day and intermittent cleaning drives for the cameras. None of it addresses the source.
The source is us. Shillong.
Wah Umkhrah is not a river today. It is an open drain that carries untreated sewage, single-use plastic, market waste from Ïewduh and Polo, engine oil from garages, and construction debris. Every drain in the city ends in Umkhrah and Umshyrpi. Every drain ends in Umiam.
Umiam was supposed to be a clean, cold lake for fish like Mahseer — the tiger of the river. Today, that fish is disappearing. Experts say sewage and waste causes eutrophication — too many nutrients, too much algae, no oxygen. Mahseer cannot live without oxygen. Fishermen say fish from Umiam now smells bad. Customers don’t want to buy it. This is because fish absorb chemicals, bacteria and algae smell.
GTF is right to say cleaning alone will not save the lake. One clean-up will not bring Mahseer back. What we need is to stop the waste at the source. That means enforcing solid waste rules in Shillong city, not in Mawdun. It means real-time waste interception traps at Umshyrpi, at Mawlai, at Polo.
The state has to decide what Umiam is. Is it a scenic lake for luxury hotels and high-impact tourism? Or is it a critical hydropower reservoir that powers our homes? You cannot have both without a strict ecological carrying capacity. You cannot build hotels that generate more sewage while asking villagers downstream to clean your sewage.
Umiam looked like a success in engineering. Now it is a warning of what happens when we neglect nature.
The people of Mawdun are doing their part each day by pulling out Shillong’s waste with their hands. Now it is time that Shillong looks away from the viewpoint and looks into its drains.
