Shillong, Mar 25: Mawrah Reservoir Project, an exemplary collaborative effort between the government and the community in water resources management, has brought laurels for the state by bagging a prestigious national award on water sustainability.
The project in East Khasi Khasi Hills district was accorded the “Winner Award – 4th Water Sustainability Award (National Award) 2024-25” in the category “Excellence in Participatory Water Management for Enhancing Water Management through Community Participation”, in New Delhi recently.
The award was received by Marwah village dorbar at the function organised by Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS), Department of Water Resources.
The award to Marwah Reservoir Project is the first-of-its-kind recognition to any such project supported by the Soil & Water Conservation department.
“This award is a recognition of the tireless efforts of our government to implement the climate action agenda by ensuring the community participation,” the department stated in a press release.
Water Sustainability Awards aim to encourage achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG -6) on Water by way of reducing water footprint among various stakeholders through the adoption of “water neutrality” approach.
Relevance and impact of the project, uniqueness of initiative, insights and best practices, and alignment of the project with global and national targets, were some of the major assessment criteria of the award.
The award jury panel mentioned that “The Mawrah model is a typical initiative by ensuring the collaboration between the government and the community in water resources management which helps the livelihood improvement of the village people and the impact of this project is align towards the achievement of SDG Goal 6.”
Meanwhile, the state government in collaboration with Asian Development Bank has proposed to implement 100 per cent “Climate Financing Climate – Adaptative Community-based Water Harvesting Project” by ensuring the community participation.
The project worth USD 62.5 million, including USD 12.50 million from state government and rest ADB (Asian Development Bank), involves construction of 532 climate resilient water harvesting structures among other activities.
Other key components of the project are command and catchment area activities, livelihood improvement programmes, institutional strengthening, capacity building programmes, innovative technology across the state.
The state government already signed the loan agreement in December last year and implementation of the project has been started in various districts.
The project is likely to strengthen climate-resilient water harvesting systems in the state by creating an approximate pondage area of 415 ha and approximate water storage of 12 million cubic meters, through community demand-driven participatory approach.
