WATER POVERTY IN THE NORTHEASTERN HILL REGION (INDIA)

WATER POVERTY IN THE NORTHEASTERN HILL REGION (INDIA): POTENTIAL ALLEVIATION THROUGH MULTIPLE-USE WATER SYSTEMSTable 5: Correlation coefficients for the Water Poverty Index (WPI) component scoresComponent Resource Access Capacity Use Environment WPIResource 1.00Access 0.14 1.00Capacity 0.08 0.37 1.00Use 0.13 0.45 0.25 1.00Environment 0.08 0.13 0.04 0.48 1.00WPI 0.50 0.68 0.57 0.36 0.11 1.00i. The inhabitants in the New Side cluster ( Ching Lan) have the lowest relative WPI score (0.349)and it is therefore the most water poor cluster in the village. This also shows that the developedwater resource is hardly sufficient to meet the domestic needs of existing population and anyfurther expansion shall face very high water poverty.ii.iii.iv.v.vi.The Middle cluster/ colony ( Ching Tan) has the highest relative WPI score (0.546) and is thus theleast water poor cluster in the village. In absolute terms even this WPI score does not rank veryhigh to suggest sufficiency of water resource.The two highest ranking colonies in the Water Poverty Index (Middle Colony- Ching Tan and NewUpper Colony) are colonies with relatively high access to water resources and where high capacitywater storage structures have been recently constructed.The “Access to Water Resource” component has the most significant impact on water povertysince the correlation coefficient of that component (0.68) is the maximum among all thecomponents. This explicitly explains that it is not the resource per se, but the provision ofaccess to water resource which is most important for alleviating water poverty. It is trueeven in so called ‘water abundant’ villages of Nagaland and north east region.The environment component seems to have very less effect on water poverty (Correlationcoefficient 0.11).There appears to be a high correlation between ‘Access’ and ‘Capacity’ which indicates thatthe restriction on access may be due to the lack of education or income. Alternatively, it canalso be argued that the limitation on capacity may be due to poor accessibility to water. Theopportunity cost in collecting water for household consumption seems to be very high.vii. There is an urgent need to augment the water resource in the village through construction of adequatewater storage and distribution structures (especially in New Side cluster/colony, Ching Lan).viii. Water from all the water storage structures should be provided with primary treatment so as to makeit fit for human consumption. The supply for productive purposes (livestock, homestead gardens)may be addressed separately or through enhanced supplies.25