100 villages in Nagaland to avail spring-shed water security

Dimapur, July 11 (EMN): The project called ‘Multi-stakeholder project on springshed development for water security in 100 villages in rural areas of Nagaland’ was officially launched on July 11 in the SIRD conference hall in Kohima. The launching programme was organized by the North East Initiative Development Agency (NEIDA).

A consortium comprising of Rural Development and Land Resources departments, Government of Nagaland; Tata Trusts; Arghyam; Advanced Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (ACWADAM); People’s Science Institute (PSI); NEIDA; and Eleutheros Christian Society (ECS) has agreed to work together under three-year project to provide water security by adopting scientific approach of springshed management in 100 villages in rural Nagaland’, the press release received here on Wednesday from the NEIDA informed.

The launching programme was attended by officials from the department of Rural Development and Land Resource; PSI, NEIDA, and ECS.

“Nagaland depends on spring water to supply most of its drinking water requirement as well as for agricultural use. However, due to human activities springs have been drying up making water availability, especially during the winter months a major concern.”

To address this, the consortium partners have agreed to converge its resources with the objective of providing an innovative model of public-private partnership. It was informed that resources from government’s existing programmes will be leveraged with non-governmental organizations like the Tata Trusts and Agrhyam providing support for software cost and NGOs like NEIDA and ECS extending support for coordination, community outreach and implementation. PSI and ACWADAM will be the technical support agencies for the project, it informed.

An agreement of association is said to have been signed between the partners in October 2017.

The overall goal of this project is to provide seasonal water security and conservation of springs with a technically sound spring revival initiative, build capacities at multiple levels of state institutions – village, district and state to undertake spring shed management and scale up the intervention across the state. Through spring shed management, the project also aims to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change affecting drinking water security in the state, the press release stated.

Taking forward this partnership, the partners have agreed to begin the work in 100 villages in the state over the next three years.