Planning board push for saving water resource

SHILLONG: The working group 5 of the State Planning Board has requested the Water Resources Department to get in touch with the Geography Department of North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) and North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC) to identify and protect water resources from major streams in the state.
Speaking to media persons after holding a review meeting with the department, the co-chairman of the planning board, John Kharshiing, said around 7,000 water bodies in the state have been mapped so far.
In addition, the department has also been asked to look into the possibility of tapping groundwater.
“We have enough technology through NESAC to know at least how much groundwater we have,” Kharshiing said and added that the working group 5 of the board has also recommended the department to go for rainwater harvesting.
The Planning Board, while admitting that the department has manpower shortage, also rued that central allocation for the department comes at the end of March and it remains unspent as a result of which the allocation for next year goes down.
“We have asked them to take up the matter with the Union Government,” he said. Giving information about the schemes of the department, he said in 2015-16, there were 200 ongoing schemes covering an area of 12,874 hectares in flow irrigation sector at a cost of Rs 14,128.15 lakh and benefiting 6,888 beneficiaries.
The department is also implementing 11 water harvesting schemes at an area of 87 hectares with a cost of Rs 114.03 lakh. Kharshiing further informed that the department, in 2016-17, is implementing 230 ongoing schemes covering 16,095 hectares at a cost of Rs 23,770.18 lakh and the scheme will benefit 10,578 families.