Project aimed at rejuvenating water table in State
New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has cleared five projects related to climate change including one in Meghalaya worth over a hundred crore rupees, official sources said on Tuesday.
The project sanctioned for Meghalaya – Spring-shed development works for rejuvenation of springs for climate resilient development in the water stressed areas – will cost Rs 23.98 crore and will seek to maintain and improve the integrity of the natural water bodies of the State.
The project interventions will help in reducing the surface runoff of rainwater in the spring-shed areas, promote deeper water percolation, and rejuvenate the water table. The project is expected to benefit approximately 16,494 households, sources said.
The Union ministry held its ninth meeting of the National Steering Committee on Climate Change (NSCCC) and approved the Detailed Project Reports on adaptation submitted by governments of Telangana, Mizoram, Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya and Chhattisgarh for funding, under the National Adaptation Fund on Climate Change (NAFCC) at a total cost of approximately Rs 108 crore for implementation in these states.
The only other such project cleared in North East was from Mizoram titled ‘Sustainable agriculture development through expansion, enhancement and modeling in the state of Mizoram’.
The Committee approved four other projects in Telangana, Jammu & Kashmir and Chhattisgarh.
The Meghalaya government had embarked on a very ambitious plan for water and livelihoods, the
Integrated Basin Development Livelihood Programme of which springs conservation is a part. The villages are getting involved in the much larger water livelihoods programme that’s going on; springs is just a small piece of the whole thing going forward.
The plan is that village councils are going to be part of a steering committee that will take responsibility for how natural resources are managed within a village. Some of those people from the village councils will be trained as para-professionals.