Resubelpara, June 13: For one of the remotest village in the district of North Garo Hills (NGH), Amerim, daily fights over water was as common a sight as washing clothes or eating food.
The village of about 89 households is spread across an entire hill with the only useable waterhole right at the centre of the village.
For those in the upper reaches, fetching water, scarce to the point of almost being unavailable meant fighting between themselves for the precious resource.
However an ingenious idea that came from the team of Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA) in the district helped change the entire situation.
The project was taken up under the state’s MLAMP.
Amerim is located about 20 kms from Kharkutta, beside the Chilpara Reserve Forest. The only way to reach the top of the village is through the use of a 4 Wheel drive pick-up truck that falters halfway as there is literally no road to navigate through. To reach the watering hole required us to climb at least about a kilometre uphill through dense vegetation and loose mud.
“In the first tranche we constructed a check dam though that did not help solve the problem as most of the households live in the upper section of the hill. The check dam was set up in the year 2019. What we then did was set up a water lifting device in May 2020 which was set up. With this, we were able to supply water to the upper sections as well. This helped sort out the water problem for the entire village where now most of the households are able to get water,” said field engineer, Chongme G Momin.
The project was completed with a price tag of just Rs 2.03 lakhs, with most of it going towards the cost of the water lifting device.
The project, which has been handed over to the community within the village, is maintained by the villagers themselves. “We have shown them how the entire setup works and it is easy to fix if there are problems. The device does not need electricity to run with the flow of water being sufficient for it to lift water to the upper reaches of the village,” said Momin.
Currently as there is no filtration process for the water, it can only be used for household chores like washing clothes, dishes and other daily activities.
However the water has come as a boon for the villagers as it helps everyone that requires it.
When we reached, the villagers were clearing out the silt that was deposited in the check dam due to the monsoon. They also installed some natural filters, including stones to try and stop the accumulation of silt.
“The silt has been cleared within a day and the dam will begin functioning again today itself. The stream is extremely small and we had to think out of the box to ensure that people didn’t have to fight over water,” added Chongme.
The pump can lift water on its own and it pumps 30 times from the check dam.
“We have a 2000 litre ‘Sintex’ in the upper part of the village which caters to about 20 households there. Earlier there were daily fights mostly between the people who came to fetch water from the down source. This has now been resolved,” added the field engineer, who was also a part of the visit.
Further in an effort to increase ground water levels in the villages, afforestation efforts are now being made in the upper parts of the village. The few villagers who were at the check dam clearing silt had only words of praise for what was done for them and how it has eased their lives. While the project itself may be small in size, its impact on the lives of the people of Amerim cannot be downplayed.
The fact that the villagers have moved towards an increase in forest cover is just the icing on the proverbial cake.
