CLEANLINESS WORRIOR/SAFAIMITRA- C.LALNGAIHSAKI THAIZAWL, LUNGLEI

Towards the south of the capital town of Lunglei District, lies a village named Thaizawl with the National Highway – 54 crossing the village. This village is 17 kms away from the main busy town of the District Capital. The water sources were not well- kept or maintained a couple of decades ago and are rather utilized for burning charcoal, getting fire-wood and loggings. The catchment area that supplies water for this village is well within their neighboring village , Sairep where private lands are used for farming and the forest covers have been depleted due to the afore mentioned reasons which in turn put the rivers and water sources on the verge of drying up. This has been a cause of concern for the community members residing in this village posing a threat to scarcity of water. All of these led to a serious issue of water supply degradation during the dry seasons creating a crack in the solidarity of the community.
With this diminishing supply of water, it has greatly concerned the one inhabitant named Pi C Lalngaihsaki who has been a prolific activist for years. She has taken action on her own accord with the advice from PHED Lunglei in regard to planting trees in the catchment areas. Aside from these, the PHE Dept. as well as other activists have supplied sapling of Jackfruit and other trees. She would take her 10 years old daughter and plant all these trees by themselves. She not only plants these saplings, she also took it a step further to oversee the growth and took responsibility in the caretaking of all these youngs.
Pi C.Lalngaihsaki has been the torch bearer for environmental, Water Supply and Cleanliness preservation to her best effort and has taken the initiatives to gather all the children (below 18 years) in the village market places or Community Hall to give awareness and she visits schools to do the same. She also founded the Environment Protection Children Club with the belief that this would help to establish the necessity to protect the environment, cleanliness and hygiene in the minds of these young members of the society- the future generation. These children follow her leadership and took upon themselves to foraging the voluntary services of picking trashes and planting trees under her supervision. Not only that, she also took the Club members to digging trenches along the river banks and water sources. Before the EPCC has been put together, Pi C. Lalngaihsaki often gathered the children and gave awareness not only about cleanliness and environment but also issues caused by depletion of forest covers and protection of wild animals, preserving the land’s ethnicity and its nation, the problems of drug related problems and addictions with its impending doom.
Cleanliness and hygiene had not been over-compensated considering its geographical area and the deteriorating and decline of general public health had been a cause of concern in the community. Waste disposal on catchment areas and roadside due to lack of infrastructure and proper dumping ground led to a series of illness. With this in mind, The PHE Dept has taken initiatives in preparing dumping grounds for wet and dry wastes. However, it was reportedly remaining unutilized. This caused a great concern to Pi. C. Lalngaihsaki and took the responsibility upon herself to be the activist which led to the assemblance of the EPCC on her personal expense. She often organized a joint service with the children to do the deeds. She would often plead to have a word on sanitation and preservation of water sources during the Gram Sabha meetings.
PHE Dept has set up Naupang Fai Duh Pawl (NFDP) in the state that EPCC members eagerly convert to. There are 65 members as of present. The NFDP has organized awareness campaign twice during the year 2023, and once in 2024 as well as 2 campaign on village level. The common service which is called ‘Hnatlang’ is organized once every month, if need be twice. Banner on important of cleanliness has been put on the streets and leaflets have been printed out and distributed to the tourists.
Pi C.Lalngaisaki Achievements can be seen throughout the village that compels the NGOs, Village Council/ Court, WATSAN Committee and Community members to lead helping hand. Garbage bins for wet and dry have been provided on the streets. The village toward cleanliness and environmental protect under her initiatives. During the rainless and dries season of 2024, their main water source ‘Thailui and Camp Lui’ have seen a lot of improvement compared to previous years. Now, their waste/ garbage has been segregated into wet and dry to be taken to a proper dumping ground by cart and garbage truck (LMV).