Sohkhyllam village in South West Khasi Hills district, one of the 400 villages with the most critically degraded landscapes, is on the path of regeneration through the Natural Resource Management (NRM) practices under the Community-Led Landscape Management Project (CLLMP) funded by World Bank.
The landscape of Sohkhyllam, like the other villages have degraded severely due to the indiscriminate felling of trees, unregulated exploitation of natural resource bases and catchments. To address the pressing issues two projects that stood out and have gone a long way in addressing the more pressing issues of the village are an afforestation drive at Setkhla and a spring chamber at Dong Nongtepdieng.
According to the Meghalaya Basin Management Agency these projects through the CLLMP has played a vanguard role in implementing activities across the 400 villages which also included Sohkhyllam.
“The community first became alert to the urgency for interventions following a sensitization visit by CLLMP in 2018. CLLMP personnel were en route to the other 399 other villages as the project had only just been launched and was fulfilling its foremost agreed action to spread state-wide awareness on the best NRM practices. Following revisits and training to strengthen capacities in numerous domain areas, the project facilitated the formation of a Village NRM Committee (VNRMC) at Sohkhyllam on July 8, 2019 to act as the primary unit of planning and to preside over the implementation,” the agency said.
The VNRMC led the selection and implementation of the appropriate interventions themselves because CLLMP follows the Community-Driven Development (CDD) model to ensure inclusivity and transparency, and to advance rural empowerment and develop local capacity. “This approach limited the project’s role to only facilitation and provision of support tools such as GIS to augment the planning process. Of the work implemented thus far, two interventions have stood out and have gone a long way in addressing the more pressing issues of the village – an afforestation drive at Setkhla and a spring chamber at Dong Nongtepdieng.”
The committee initiated the afforestation initiative in early 2021 by transplanting the saplings raised in their community nursery. Both men and women were engaged in the plantation of about 1800 saplings covering 3 Ha of the Setkhla area. Construction work of the spring chamber started on July 15, 2020 and completed 13 months after.
Over 20 households have benefitted directly by getting access to a secured water source for domestic use and other purposes, while the spring is protected from contamination and is preserving the catchment area.
President of the Sohkhyllam VNRMC, Prosperly Wanniang stated his delight at the success of the projects and the impact that these timely interventions would have in the long term and looks forward to ensuring that the interventions are maintained and to recovering the once green and fertile landscapes of Sohkhyllam.
