The government committee that is meant to prepare a roadmap for the preservation of Umiam Lake will visit the site on March 1, it was announced today.
This comes two days after the High Court expressed dissatisfaction with a “knee-jerk reaction” by the state government to the public interest litigation (PIL) pending in the court regarding protection of the reservoir and nearby water bodies.
On February 22, the state government declared Umiam Lake and its surrounding areas as a wetland and prohibited any construction of a permanent nature, except for boat jetties, within 50 metres from the mean high flood level.
“However, such notification leaves a lot to be desired, particularly since all the land covered by the Umiam Lake and the surrounding areas, which may go underwater seasonally, have not been appropriately described or demarcated,” the division bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Wanlura Diengdoh said the following day.
The court was then told by the government lawyer that the task of demarcating the land and to precisely indicate the same has been left to the committee which has been recently constituted by the government.
Today’s meeting was attended by representatives of the Forest and Environment, Power, Fisheries and Tourism Departments, State Pollution Control Board and Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council.
“After a physical inspection, the committee will meet again and we will be able to come up with a viable solution to preserve the reservoir and its purity for all the citizens of the state,” Commissioner and Secretary of the Forest and Environment Department, Syed Md Razi, said, adding that a preliminary plan has been agreed on. Environmentalist Naba Bhatacharjee said long-term and short- term measures will be considered.
“All the departments and stakeholders, particularly civil society, have to be taken on board to make it a success. While we take care of Umiam Lake, one can’t ignore the Wahumkhrah and Umshyrpi rivers (which flow into Umiam). Once we take care of these two, automatically the others will also be taken care of,” he said. “I have suggested that without going to the site we can’t come to a decision agreed on by everyone. This will be a long term process and can’t be achieved in one day but the process should start now before it’s too late.”
Bhattacharjee has also suggested the closure of Marten, Shillong’s landfill. Waste can seep into rivers and streams from the dumping ground.
