Sangma spells out state water mission

Shillong, October 24: Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma spells out that the “Water Mission vision” is to provide safe and adequate access to water for all in the state by the time the state celebrates 50 years of statehood in the year 2022.

This vision  was announced at the first meeting of the Meghalaya State Water Resource Council (MSWRC) under the chairmanship of Sangma on Thursday.During the meeting, the council discussed the significant issues surrounding water quality and livelihoods.

The meeting emphasized that while availability of water is critical to sustainable livelihoods, it is also extremely important to ensure that development does not take place at the cost of environment due to over exploitation of available resources or pollution.

In this regard, the council has decided to put together a comprehensive water quality monitoring system and appropriate regulatory frameworks to ensure sustainable water resources management particularly in over exploited urban areas and also in those areas where orchards are adversely affected because of such over exploitation.

The water quality monitoring system will encompass all forms of water resources including ground water.

The council emphasized the need for evolving a comprehensive approach to flood management for ensuring complete convergence of investments from all sources while getting the best value for the investments.

The council also approved the Water Plus initiative focusing on making incremental investments in the water bodies already created and also harnessing the best value from such investments by putting in place the approach of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).

The implementation strategy for the Water Mission was discussed, keeping in mind the various ongoing schemes and efforts of various departments.

The council encouraged mobilizing resources from various schemes and programs including funding from international development funding agencies. From discussions it emerged that convergence of efforts and schemes will be critical to the success of the Water Mission.

The council laid special emphasis on water governance at all levels starting from farmer to village and district to state levels. The importance of supportive regulations and institutional framework was apparent and in this regard the government is putting together an actionable implementation plan for launching the Water Mission document which would act as the guideline for the policy makers to put together the Water Policy and Water Act which would ensure that all efforts are properly streamlined and are collaborative in nature.

However before putting in place a regulatory regime, broad based consultations with all stakeholders are to be ensured. In addition to the state wide policies and legislative frameworks, the council discussed the importance of development of social agreements which shall define the exact roles and responsibilities of all the stakeholders.

The social agreements will have to be given due consideration while designing projects to ensure that proper alignment of interests is maintained as that would be critical for the long term sustainability of the projects.

The Water Mission is one of the nine missions under the state government’s flagship Integrated Basin Development and Livelihood Promotion (IBDLP) programme.

The key elements of the Water Mission include knowledge management, institutional development and capacity building, water use and water use efficiency, water quality management, ground water management, flood management, promoting multipurpose use of water, water and climate change adaptation, water governance and convergence.

The council discussed the important role that the Water Mission will play by linking the various initiatives by comprehensively involving all aspects of water management and linking them to various livelihoods with the goal to bring a positive change to the lives of people of the state.

One of the key issues that emerged from the meeting was the immediate need to enhance the knowledge about availability of water resources, both surface and ground water, in the state. Better knowledge amongst the various stakeholders would ensure better planning and targeted developmental efforts.

Further, it was discussed that to ensure sustainable development and utilization of the state’s water resources it is critical that significant community participation takes place both in the planning and development of water resources projects.

The council discussed that all efforts should be led from village level and upwards and the communities should be appropriately incentivized to take active part in developing and managing water resources projects that ultimately ensure sustainable and inclusive development throughout the state.

In this chief minister Mukul Sangma supported the initiative of launching a state wide Water Campaign to sensitize various stakeholders and invoke active participation. A network of dedicated youth is to be put in place to contribute in capacity of green ambassadors to take forward this campaign.

The council appreciated the efforts made by North Eastern Centre for Technology Application and Reach (NECTAR) for water sector development in Meghalaya. – By Our Reporter