{"id":229383,"date":"2023-11-27T01:39:20","date_gmt":"2023-11-26T20:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=229383"},"modified":"2023-11-27T01:39:20","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T20:09:20","slug":"a-lake-of-opportunities-sans-people-reaping-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2023\/11\/27\/a-lake-of-opportunities-sans-people-reaping-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"A lake of opportunities sans people reaping benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>[ Joken Ete ]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>ITANAGAR, 26 Nov:<\/strong> Following the huge success of the Siikhe and Shi lakes in Lower Subansiri district, the state water resources department took up a water conservation project in Naraba, near Lumdung, in East Kameng district, to emulate the success and make it a favourite tourists&#8217; destination.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, the sad saga is that the people of the district are not reaping any benefit from the project, unlike the people in the Ziro valley.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Situated adjacent to golden paddy fields on both sides of the Papu river and on the foothills, the lake is surrounded by a wide variety of flora, while the stunning natural landscapes are a feast for the eyes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Rs 12-crore project, a brainchild of local legislator Mama Natung, was inaugurated on 15 August this year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The lake has a water surface area of 12 hectares and has storage capacity of 0.8 million cubic metres or 8 lakhs cubic litres. It has a depth of 6 metres and the length of the dam is 280 metres, while the height is 8 metres above the ground level.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Seppa WRD division was the agency that executed the project. However, after three months of inauguration, this stunning beauty at the bottom of the valley is lying unused.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">WRD (P&amp;D) Chief Engineer Likar Angu informed that the lake was formed by storing water from the Naraba stream. &#8220;The main idea behind the lake was to recharge the groundwater,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said that the plus point of the project is moisture retention and greening in and around the lake.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;The value addition of the project was to store water for irrigation, pisciculture, aesthetic or recreational purposes, or both,&#8221; the CE said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Angu said that the agricultural fields nearby were to be provided with water through pipelines by means of gravity flow.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said that people can enjoy picnicking in and around the lake.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Angu, however, expressed dismay that the people are not reaping any benefit from the project, unlike the people of Ziro valley.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;The lack of interest, or people not reaping any benefit from the project may be because people have other avenues to earn money,&#8221; he opined.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In Ziro, people are earning revenues from fish cultivation, picnic, sightseeing, boating etc, he said, adding that such is not the case in Lumdung.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Seppa WRD Executive Engineer Hanu Techi Tara disclosed that the project was to be managed by the people. &#8220;A village development committee was to be formed to run the project, but we are yet to hear from them,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said, however, that the villagers and youths would not be able to run it, and that the project should be run preferably by a multipurpose cooperative society.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He advocated community participation to ensure success of the project.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Tara disclosed that the department has released fingerlings into the lake to achieve sustainable fishery. He said that &#8220;people are enjoying picnicking there and the process to procure boats is underway.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Advocating community participation, he said that &#8220;boating, irrigation and pico hydel could be taken up to boost tourism and to ensure benefit for the local population.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Tara said that the area has huge potential to attract tourists, provided basic services are in place.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is to be hoped that, in the coming days, Lumdung will attract tourists like Tawang, Bomdila and Ziro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ Joken Ete ] ITANAGAR, 26 Nov: Following the huge success of the Siikhe and Shi lakes in Lower Subansiri district, the state water resources department took up a water conservation project in Naraba, near Lumdung, in East Kameng district, to emulate the success and make it a favourite tourists&#8217; destination. However, the sad saga [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-229383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}