Shillong, Sept 14: The Meghalaya State Planning Board (MSPB) has emphasized the urgent need to identify and protect sources of major rivers and streams in the state.
“We have stressed on the urgent need to identify and protect the water bodies of major rivers and streams in the state,” MSPB co-chairman, John F. Kharshiing said after a review meeting of the board’s working group-V with the officials of water resources department.
According to him, inputs received on dwindling of streams in the state were quite alarming due to human activities.
“Over 7,000 water bodies have been mapped in the state and the department has been asked to share the information with the public health engineering (PHE) department,” he said.
Apart from suggesting the department to work with NESAC to know the status of ground water in the state, he said that much emphasis was also laid on rainwater harvesting in the state.
Reviewing the financial and physical achievement of the department, Kharshiing however said that the allocation of fund for the department was not much as it mostly worked in convergence with other line departments.
However for the year 2015-16, the department was having 200 ongoing schemes covering 12,874 hectares at Rs 14128.15 lakh benefiting around 6,888 beneficiaries. Of these, 85 are new and minor irrigation projects while 50 are implemented under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme.
He said that for improvement of spring and restoration of water bodies besides others there were around 68 schemes at a total cost of Rs 2389.83 lakh while water harvesting scheme covering 87 hectares at Rs 114.03 lakh.