Manipur: Government to lift water from Thoubal Dam, Loktak Lake to solve water crisis

Manipur government has directed the state water resources department to lift water from Thoubal dam and Loktak Lake to solve the gripping water crisis in greater Imphal and its surrounding areas.

Water resources department officials while speaking to the media stated that they will work aggressively on the initiative taken up by the state government to address the issue of water crisis, for which they are constructing a canal measuring around 18 kms upto Malom, and which will be completed by March 20.

The officials further stated that water will be soon supplied to the people in Greater Imphal and surrounding areas with water from Loktak Lake and Thoubal Dam.

The water from Loktak Lake would be drawn upto Malom while Thoubal Dam will be supplying water to Chingkheiching Reserve, officials quoted as saying.

About the water level at Thoubal Dam, the authorities confirmed that the dam has a capacity limit of 125 million cubic meter and it right now stores around 75-80 million cubic meter of water.

The dam's water level is approximately 869 meters above MSL.

They reassured me that the dam has enough water.

They went on to say that in order to supply the Chingkheiching Reserve with water throughout the year, it would take approximately 10 to 12 million cubic meters of water. However, this could change if there were water leaks at some points.

They added that approximately 20 million cubic meters of water would be sufficient to supply Chingkheiching with water throughout the year if the water leakage was minimal.

The representatives of WRD insisted that there is no shortage of water at Thoubal Dam and that the water level will rise when there is rainfall, maintaining that the dam would be able to supply water for more than three years even in the absence of rainfall.

The officials recalled that the Thoubal Dam provided water for irrigation during the Manipur drought of 2019 that destroyed numerous paddy fields.

They added that even though many rivers in Manipur have dried up, the Thoubal River continues to flow with the help of the Thoubal Dam.

Officials informed us that Loktak Lift Irrigation (LLI) has five canal networks: Imphal Main Canal, Imphal Low Canal, Imphal High Canal, Moirang Low Canal, and Moirang High Canal. LLI has been activated to provide water to Imphal areas.

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