Why Mausynram in Meghalaya faces an acute shortage of water?

Answer 1

IT'S hard to believe but even Cherrapunji suffers from water shortage. For nearly 150 years now, all schoolboys in the world have learnt that the 4,000 feet-high Cherrapunji in modern Meghalaya in India is the wettest place in the world, having as much as 14,000 mm ( 40 feet) of rain every year. But what is not known is that today there is such a shortage of water in this "wet desert" that its 10,000 inhabitants have to buy water, carted from the nearby plains at a cost of Rs 8 per bucket.

Only rain water harvesting can sort out the problems of the world's wettest town . Scientists point out the example of Jaisalmer, one of the driest towns in India in Rajasthan, with rainfall levels as little as 100 mm of water per year, where it was found that if you harvest water on just one hectare of land, you have captured as much as one million litres of water --- enough to meet drinking and cooking water needs of 182 people at 15 litres per day for one year.

If you create in Cherrapunji with 14,000 mm annual rainfall a catchment area totalling 100 hectares on rooftops of each house, you can harvest at least 100 million litres of rain water per year, and thus save the wettest town in the world the ignominy of having to import water from the plains. It remains to be seen whether Cherrapunjians will have the wisdom be able to sort out their water problems .

Answer 2

the hilly terrain leads to rapid water run off. unscientific coal mining and quarrying also leads to depletion of ground water table.