Meghalaya Declares 749 Water Sources Critical, Plans Restoration

SHILLONG: Meghalaya's Public Health Engineering (PHE) Minister, Marcuise N. Marak, has announced that over 749 water sources in the state are now considered 'critical.'

In a statement to the press, the minister said that the government will take action to restore these water sources. Experts have been brought in to create a plan and project for preserving the water.

Marak also shared that the state plans to use Internet of Things (IoT) technology to keep track of water quality in rivers and other water bodies across Meghalaya.

Additionally, the state aims to complete the Jal Jeevan Mission by March 2025. Marak mentioned that 81.39 percent of the work has been finished, with the remaining tasks still in progress.

Over 6,000 projects under the Jal Jeevan Mission have been geo-tagged to help the Centre release funds more easily.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, The Indian government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on December 5, signed a $50 million loan to build a climate-adaptive water harvesting project in Meghalaya. 

The aim is to enhance water security by constructing water-harvesting systems to improve access to water and reduce community vulnerability against climate change impacts in the northeastern state.

The project will support the construction of 532 small water-storage facilities across 12 districts in Meghalaya besides developing 3,000 hectares of command area to provide reliable irrigation areas for farmers, according to the Ministry of Finance.

The project will also establish 50 weather stations for climate data gathering and monitoring, and micro-irrigation systems in Garo, Jaintia, and Khasi regions. It aligns with the Meghalaya State Water Policy (MSWP) 2019.

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