Spring water to be rejuvenated in 100 Nagaland villages

Dimapur, Oct. 31 (EMN): Land Resources and Rural Development departments have collaborated with North East Initiative Development Agency (Neida) and Tata Trusts to rejuvenate spring water in 100 villages in Nagaland through a multi-stakeholders partnership.

An update from Neida stated that Nagaland being a mountainous state, a majority of the population depends on spring water for domestic as well as for irrigation purposes. It stated that in the recent past, there have been reports of springs drying up in many parts of the state. One of the key objectives under the multi-stakeholder initiative, according to Neida, is to develop a spring rejuvenation model that could be scaled up across the state.

Under the spring rejuvenation initiative that aims to revive 100 springs in 11 districts across the state; phase-II springshed recharge activities have been initiated in villages. It stated that a total of 36 springshed recharge activities have been completed under phase-I.

The springshed recharge activities comprised of digging trenches and recharge ponds, construction of gabion structures and plantation activities along with regular rainfall and spring discharge data collection.

The update informed that plantations and constructing such as structures minimise the rainwater run-off, enable groundwater to recharge and at the same time increase soil moisture content. It also controls soil erosion.

A total of approximately 50 hectares have been treated so far, it added.
Prior to the springshed recharge activities, a team led by para-hydrogeologists from the Land Resources department along with the participating village communities and Rural Development department officials carried out hydro-geological surveys in 100 villages to identify the areas where rainwater percolates to recharge the spring aquifers.