By Anup Biswas

 

Haflong : Every households of Thaisling Hower,  a village located 45 km from Haflong on Haflong – Dihangi road  for the first time since the establishment of their village got the piped water supply at their doorsteps as the PHE department came forward with the initiative of N C Hills Autonomous Council authority and the people of the village.

 

The village in a hilly geographic terrain is inhabited by62 households of Dimasa Community. The villagers were dependent on some hilly springs and open well to cater for the water needed for their drinking water as well as other day to day activities.

 

The status involved the villagers, especially the women, to collect water for drinking and other household activities, from different surface water bodies, although shallow, like traditional open wells and nearby hilly springs, most likely to be affected adversely by surface runoff. As a result of which the villagers were having a tough time while tackling the issue of non availability of safe drinking water leading to health threats and troublesome collection of water, especially by the Women folk.

The PHE Umrangso Division aiming to provide water to each household initiated the scheme with the support of the N C Hills Autonomous Council. This scheme has a provision of tapping a perennial hilly spring, from which the raw water is transported through raw water gravity main to the treatment plant. The treated water is stored in a Clear Water Reservoir (CWR), located within the campus of the scheme.

The location of the CWR is as such that it can facilitate water supply through distribution network under gravity to 21 numbers of households, residing down the site of CWR. Hence to cater for the need of balance 41 numbers of households residing in upper reach, another supporting CWR has been constructed in upper level site, to facilitate water supply under gravity to these families. So a provision of solar energization has been made to push the treated water from the CWR inside the scheme campus to the supporting CWR at upper level.

The scheme is going to be operated intermittently two times daily, to address the issues of drinking water availability, adequacy and safety After making the arrangements to facilitate water supply through distribution network under gravity to all households in the habitation, efforts are initiated to provide functional household tap connection in every households, so that the troubles of water collection from roadside stand post can be avoided.