World Water Day observed

A Correspondent

Shillong, March 21: The Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA) in collaboration with Meghalaya Water Foundation (MWF) and Meghalaya Water Resources Development Agency (MWRDA) observed the World Water Day here today at the MBDA Conference Centre, Bishop Cotton Road, Shillong.

Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. Under the theme “Water and Sustaible Development”, the year 2015 provides an important opportunity to consolidate and build upon the previous World Water Days to highlight water’s role in the sustaible development agenda.

In Meghalaya, the challenge to re-govern water requires change of mindset that will eble stakeholders to perceive water differently.

The World Water Day this year will provide a platform for discourse to address these challenges by coming together as stakeholders from all levels and provide a collective action to launch the Meghalaya Springshed Initiative. The main aim of the initiative is to ensure water security by mainstreaming scientific approaches to sustaible spring protection and magement.

Two main components to this initiative are capacity building and mainstreaming scientific approaches to spring protection and building demand and mobilizing communities for local project ownership.

Speaking on the occasion as chief guest, Meghalaya Chief Secretary, PBO Warjri said that Shillong has been depending on springs for more than a hundred years and as such in recent years, the installation of borewells had led to the depletion of tural springs.

Talking about the springshed initiative that is being undertaken, Warjri highlighted the importance and the need for community participation which is not only ideal for water development but also for other developmental activities.

“We can have an army of volunteers to monitor and feed the data and have the reliable data on the State,” he said.