IMPHAL, Aug 20 - Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said that restoration work of four wetlands, including Waithou and Lousi, would be taken up in the State soon. �The new move will help preserve wetlends of the State,� he said.
The Chief Minister informed that the New Development Bank (formerly referred to as the BRICS Development Bank) has approved an amount of around Rs 2,900 crore for executing the Jal Jeevan Mission of the Jal Shakti Ministry in the State.
The Chief Minister was speaking at the inaugural function of the Rs 44.21 crore Augmentation of Water Supply Scheme for Thoubal (Waithoupat) in Manipur�s Thoubal district. The project having a generating capacity of 18 million litres per day will provide drinking water to Thoubal and its surrounding areas.
He said that the Green Manipur Mission was launched to protect and develop forests in the State and also to encourage the people to plant more trees. So far, 235 villages have approached the government saying they are willing to provide at least five acres of land for development of forests under the mission.
Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) Minister Losii Dikho said that providing drinking water to all the people of the state was the priority of the government. Stating that water conservation is a must, he said that it was the duty and responsibility of people to conserve water.
Currently, the demand for water in the Greater Imphal area is 125 million litres per day, against the installed capacity of 104 million litres per day in the more than a dozen existing water supply plants. However, this gap will be covered once the water supply plant under construction at Chingkhei Ching in Imphal East district is completed, according to PHED officials.
