A consortium of partners, comprising of rural development and land resource department Nagaland, Tata Trusts and the North East Initiative Development Agency (NEIDA) through its Springshed Management project have made 11,857 households in 95 villages covering 23 blocks across 11 districts all-weather water sufficient. This was possible by rejuvenating 105 springs in 95 villages.
In Nagaland, mountain springs are the lifeline and the primary source of water for domestic and agriculture purposes. In recent years, demand and need for water, for drinking and agricultural purposes, has increased.
According to a press release, in 2018, the consortium of partners took up the springshed management project on a pilot basis in the state of Nagaland, focusing specifically on springshed rejuvenation to provide drinking water security in 100 villages in rural areas of Nagaland.
The release informed that the overall project goal was to develop a statewide springshed development programme to achieve sustainable water security and enhance resilience of vulnerable mountain communities to climate change.
NEIDA, an initiative of Tata Trusts, supports in enhancing the capacity of para hydro-geologies of LRD in collaboration with Peoples Science Institute, Dehradun and ACWADAM, Pune and coordination among stakeholders, where the LRD, Nagaland, allocates Human Resources, develops detailed technical reports (DTR) & supervises the project implementation.
Enhulumi village with about 230 households under Phek district was selected as one of the pilot villages, being highly dependent on seven springs for drinking water and domestic needs. Mewi Dzukhou (spring) was also selected for rejuvenation under the project through a participatory approach.
After the signing of agreement between stakeholders and the village council, para-hydrogeologists from the land resource department trained the community representatives on the significance of springshed management and other aspects.
The water demand and supply assessment of Mewi spring based on spring discharge data in March 2019 indicated a large gap resulting in water shortages which was far below the 55 LPCD water requirements as per the NRDWP guidelines. Post the Springshed treatment, the discharge measurement recorded in March 15, 2020 was 1.53 LPM resulting in 2,203 LPD showing increase in water flow by 70% and in March 15, 2021 increased to 2.41 LPM supplying 3,470 LPD which was an increase of 158% over the pre-treatment of the spring.
The highest spring discharge measured was in October, 2020 with 19.35 LPM providing 27,864 LPD which supplied more than the requirement of 27,500 litres for 500 people.
Data collector in Ehulumi village, Wekhrolo Lohe reported manifold increase in spring discharge and that the surplus water was used for agricultural purposes.
The rejuvenation works were implemented in June 2019 which saw participation of 143 villagers. Cost of labour for earthen works and spring box construction was borne through the wage component of MGNREGA from the RD department.