Hakha hit hard by water shortages

19 March 2015 — Residents in Hakha, the capital of Chin State, are experiencing serious water shortages, the situation facing its residents every summer for years.

Salai Uk, a community leader and a father, said: “This time, it is different. The situation is getting worse as our water pipelines are destroyed by the road works.”

He said that the authorities just left the pipelines unfixed and didn’t even allow residents in some parts to fix them on their own.

Worst-affected areas include Khuathar and Chin-oo-si ward in which the majority of civil servants stay in rented houses and government housing for employees.

Some are relying on water brought in by cars while others go to nearby streams, about half an hour’s drive away, which are running low as summer approaches.

Ko Soe, a Burman government employee, said that he paid 200 kyats for a five-gallon bucket of water, adding: “He hasn’t taken a shower for days.”

Some government employees get their shirts and longgyis washed for 1,000 kyats each as they do not have time to go to the stream, according to the Chinland Post.

Uk, from Khuathar, told the Chinland Guardian: “I have spent the whole morning queuing up for collecting just two gallons of water from a communal water supply.”

“The authorities didn’t and haven’t done anything to help us get water. So, we have been dependent on community-based water supply.”

Patients in Hakha complained that they were struggling for water at the Hakha General Hospital, part of which was recently opened by Dr. Than Aung, Union minister of Health, during his visit to the capital with President Thein Sein.

“We don’t have water for washing and for use in toilets. It is very difficult for us as we are supposed to keep ourselves clean every day,” said a Hakha patient, from Tlangkhua village.

Meanwhile, the government says that it has started construction of a dam in Timit river to provide water for Hakha. But it is expected to be completed around the end of this year.#