The Public Health Engineering (PHE) department is facing challenges in preserving water sources and this was attributed to climate change by Minister, Marcuise N Marak.
The Minister was replying to a query raised by Sohiong MLA, Synshar Kupar Roy Lyngdoh Thabah on steps taken by the department to strengthen the water source in implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission during the question hour of the Budget Session today.
Marak said that the source for JJM are surface, ground water and are mostly rain-fed. “The government is also taking various steps to preserve the sources because climate change is the cause leading to the drying up of water sources,” he said.
He said steps are being taken to rejuvenate the sources by soil and water conservation department, water resources and other departments. “With regards to JJM sources we have done geo-tagging so that we can monitor and take necessary steps,” Marak informed.
Earlier, Thabah expressed concern that people in his constituency which is still a rural area, have started to buy water. Pointing out that as per JJM guidelines it requires service level of 55 litre per day, he questioned if the department will be able to achieve the level.
Leader of Opposition (LO), Ronnie V Lyngdoh, highlighted the need to conserve the catchment area like River Umiew since the entire Shillong city depends on it for water supply. “If the minister is saying that the source of Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme (GSWS) and JJM is from river Umiew, is he aware that this source is drying up and there has been very less effort to reserve this catchment area?” he questioned.
Lyngdoh urged the PHE minister to ensure that the people get adequate water supply and that catchment area is protected and rejuvenation work should be done, else the people will have a huge problem in the future.
“Deforestation is going on a large scale. Even though government is making efforts like afforestation but more needs to be done,” stated the LO.
The PHE minister clarified that Umiew is not the source for JJM but for for Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme.
Mawsynram MLA, Olan Singh Suin asked if there was any specific approach to conserve each and every water source at every village level, to which the PHE minister reiterated that conserving water sources is a huge challenge for the department owing to climate change.
He said it is a global crisis but the department is trying its level best to conserve all the water sources. From the soil and water conservation they will implement the Climate Adaptive Projects which will conserve and rejuvenate the sources in order to protect the catchment areas.
