TURA: Concerns have been raised regarding the inability of Meghalaya to use rainwater as it flows to Bangladesh.
During a training programme, Commissioner and Secretary Sampath Kumar said, ”Meghalaya being the first state in India to come up with water policy has touched an important milestone. Meghalaya receives about 65 billion cubic metres of rainfall during monsoon but maximum of it flows to Bangladesh. In future, we might be able to export water to states deprived of water”.
The second day training programme on the implementation of Jal Shakti Abhiyan organised under the chairmanship of District Commissioner and District Programme Coordinator, MGNREGA, South West Garo Hills, S Ram Kumar concluded at the DRDA Conference Hall in Ampati on Sunday.
The programme was attended by various departments which included Soil and Water Conservation Department, Forest Department, Water Resources, Integrated Basin Development Livelihood Programme (IBDLP) and Community Led Landscape Management Programme (CLLMP).
Training sessions were conducted by a team of experts chaired by Commissioner, Investment Promotion Centre, Kumar for all the districts of Meghalaya through video conferencing from NIC, Shillong.
Kumar added that as most villages in Meghalaya depend on spring water, each village should have estimated water to be conserved during monsoon.
The objective of the training programme is to revive springs that have degraded both in quality and quantity through spring-shed development works.
The training emphasised on constructing recharge pits or trenches, dug out ponds, check dams, diversion drains, Impounded ponds, contour bunds and afforestation with fruit or forest trees to revive dried up springs.
It was discussed that 60 per cent of saplings to be planted in and around the spring shed should be nature conservation plants while 40 per cent could be commercial plants.
As trees like Rubber and Pine excessively dry up the land surrounding it, they are not to be included among the trees to be grown around the spring shed.
