DIMAPUR, JULY 12 (MExN): Nagaland state has around 71,000 springs out of which 7000 are dependent on by the communities for their water requirement. However out of the 7000 springs located within human habitation, 4520 of these water sources are drying up and need immediate rejuvenation.
This was stated by Commissioner & Secretary, Land Resources Department, Y. Kikheto Sema, who represented Nagaland in a meeting on Inventory and Revival of Springs in Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) at the NITI Aayog, New Delhi on Friday, a press release issued by Albert Ngullie, Joint Director, LRD stated.
During the last couple of years, with a little assistance from the state government, the LRD has taken up one springshed pilot project in each of the 11 districts, Kikheto informed.
It included community sensitization and mobilization, discharge measurement, water quality testing, hydrogeological studies of the springshed and demarcation of the effective recharge zones, and various interventions such as mechanical measures and vegetative measures.
After intervention, each pilot spring had shown increase in discharge by about 300% within two years. Kikheto also informed that the LRD has created an inventory for 2,361 springs covering both physical and water quality parameters which has been submitted to the Ministry of Water Resources and Central Ground Water Board in June 2019.
While appreciating the Government of India for taking up serious notes on revival of springs in the Indian Himalayan region, Kikheto urged the GoI to take this on mission mode and allocate separate fund for its implementation as most of the IHR states are not in a position to rejuvenate springs in large scale due to resource constrains.
Acknowledging the presentation made by Nagaland state, Dr. VK Saraswat, member of NITI Aayog commented the efforts made by few IHR states such as Nagaland, Sikkim and Meghalaya and urged other states to emulate them, the press release added.
