Mokokchung has long lived with a paradox. It receives abundant rainfall during the monsoon, yet it suffers from acute water scarcity in the lean winter months. With the dry season only a few months away, the warning signs are already evident. Unless serious measures are taken, many households will once again face severe hardship, a reality that has been consistently documented by Mokokchung Times in its three-part series, “Water – A Socioeconomic Crisis in MokokchungAMP.”
The reports revealed how, during winter, more than 30 private operators supply water daily using pick-ups carrying 2,000-litre loads. Residents without reliable public supply are forced to purchase water regularly, paying as much as Rs 800 for a single load or 2000 ltrs of water. In contrast, the Public Health Engineering Department manages only about 80,000 litres per day during the lean season, which falls far short of the town’s actual requirement. Households have shared grim stories of taps running dry for months despite having connections, of springs and communal sources disappearing, and of entire wards left dependent on private vendors.
This crisis carries an economic and social cost that is not always measured in official figures. Families divert precious income to buy water. Hygiene and health are compromised when supply fails. As the series further highlighted, Mokokchung’s fragile infrastructure and shrinking catchment areas are steadily eroding the town’s resilience.
What is required now is more than routine assurances. Catchment conservation must become central to any long-term solution, for the forests and springs feeding Mokokchung are already under stress. While the Public Health Engineering Department has the technical expertise to expand supply capacity and maintain infrastructure, it cannot act effectively without timely government approvals and support. Equally important is community ownership of water resources. Equally important is community ownership of water resources. Residents must be active participants in monitoring sources, protecting catchments, and maintaining infrastructure.
If these steps are not pursued with urgency, the coming winter will once again bring scarcity, anxiety and avoidable suffering. Water shortage in Mokokchung cannot be treated as a seasonal inconvenience. It is a perennial challenge that demands year-round preparedness, political will and collective responsibility. Unless we act now, the dry months ahead will once more expose the cost of inaction. But what will the people do?