TURA, March 15: Situated in West Garo Hills district under Selsella C&RD Block, Chambagre village was recently came to the limelight after being declared the third-place winner in The 3rd National Water Awards for ‘Best Village Panchayat’ from the North-East Zone for the financial year 2021-2022.
The village bagged the award on the strength of efficient service delivery of its VEC and the proactive participation and commitment of the community members in bringing about inclusive development.
Chambagre village has 47 households employed under MGNREGA. A village survey conducted by the Meghalaya Basin Management Agency (MBMA) revealed that many residents in Chambagre are engaged in either agriculture or horticulture — the village also has plenty of areca nuts, black pepper, and cashew plantations while the total area under paddy cultivation is 50 bighas.
Awareness and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) exercises were first conducted in 2017 for the community of Chambagre by MBMA as part of convergence initiatives between the Meghalaya Livelihoods and Access to Markets Project (Megha-LAMP) and MGNREGA.
Megha-LAMP is an Externally Aided Project of the Government of Meghalaya, implemented by Meghalaya Basin Management Agency (MBMA), and supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The village is one of 1,350 across the state covered by the Megha-LAM Project.
The community participated actively in the planning process for implementing sustainable approaches of Natural Resource Management. At the time, the village was attempting to cope with severe water shortages for domestic and irrigation uses. The lack of an irrigation system had impacted paddy cultivation, and with domestic water, women and children would spend two hours getting to and returning from a clean water source.
Vikrant Valentine Hembrom, District Project Manager (Megha-LAMP), West Garo Hills, explained, “Two water tanks and irrigation canal were constructed in Chambagre village with the support of the Megha-LAMP fund and convergence initiative of the Block. The irrigation canal will support the 1 hectare plantation of paddy and other vegetation.”
Interventions included the construction of two water tanks in the upper and lower regions of Chambagre with capacities of 14,000 and 17,000 litres, and an irrigation canal that covers a 1-hectare land area. Both tanks have benefited 47 households in total while the time taken to fetch water has been reduced to only 30 minutes per day. Fifteen households have benefitted directly from the construction of the irrigation canal.
Speaking to the Knowledge Management (Megha-LAMP) team, Riksil Marak, VEC secretary of Chambagre, said, “Under Megha-LAMP, in 2018, the first water storage tank was built and another tank after that. This has benefited us a lot. With the availability of tanks in the village, fetching water has now become easier”.
A woman who regularly comes to collect water from the tank said, “Now we get sufficient water which we use for washing various items. Also, I use the water for drinking purposes as well.”
Another community member informed that in 2015 they were faced with difficulties aplenty in getting drinking water, but since 2019 their water-related issues have been resolved. This has helped the womenfolk of the village to participate more freely in church activities and in sending their children to schools.
Several initiatives are undertaken to maintain the sustainability of the interventions in the village. The community is given regular awareness on spring rejuvenation initiatives and the indigenous plant species for water retention.
“The community itself has covered three forest land which approximately covers 5 hectares each making this village an example as to how a village can conserve forest, land, water and livelihood, ” Hembrom said.
About 5,000 forest trees such as teaks, mango trees, jack fruit trees, and arena nut trees have been planted in 10 hectares of community land to treat the catchment areas.
A community nursery has been set up to promote afforestation activities within and outside the village vicinity leading to the creation of livelihoods for the village’s unemployed youths. Also, the Natural Resource Management Committee has been constituted to ensure the participation of households, especially women, in the decision-making processes for the planning and implementation of further activities.
One of the key objectives of Megha-LAMP is to help communities sustainably leverage natural resources so that they become strong and resilient village economies with assured water security. The works implemented in Chambagre are a few of the water security initiatives of the project and they are easily replicable at the community level.
While commenting on the support received from the district administration, Hembrom said, “West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Singh had an immense role for the achievement of the award. He supported us during the whole preparatory process. His work itself is an inspiration for community members”.
Equally, the village received support from the Block office, government departments like Agriculture and Horticulture, and agencies like ATMA.