Shillong, Sep 22: Meghalaya has enforced its 35-year-old catchment protection law, with communities voluntarily partnering with the government to protect the Ganol and Umiew catchments.
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said this at the Integrated Partners’ Support and Engagement programme held by Meghalaya Basin Management Agency (MBMA) at Matchakolgre LP School Playground, New Tura.
“Since the Act was passed in 1990, this is an important step. It required understanding and permission of local communities, a threshold never met till now. Today’s MoU is a historic breakthrough,” Sangma said, calling it critical to fight climate change in a state that records nearly 50 per cent of country’s highest rainfall.
In a first-of-its-kind in India, the state government, through MegARISE and MBDA, signed MoUs with Pomlakrai Umiew and Durakalagre Ganol villages to initiate protected catchment declaration under Meghalaya Protection Act, 1990.
The MoUs are anchored in the ₹344.4 crore KfW-funded MegARISE project – ₹277.2 crore external assistance plus ₹67.2 crore State share – running from November 2022 to November 2029. It covers 52,198 hectares across 77 micro-watersheds and 226 villages.
Ganol alone covers 39,714 hectares across 64 micro-watersheds and 132 villages – 76 per cent of project area – spread over Rongram, Selsella, Rerapara and Samanda blocks. It underpins Tura’s water security and the ₹398 crore Greater Tura Water Supply Scheme, while Umiew is Shillong’s principal water source.
Sangma linked the two flagship interventions, “FOCUS+ raises seasonal income, MegARISE protects the water, soil and forest that income depends on.”
At the programme, the CM released ₹28.60 crore as first installment of 2026 FOCUS+ – ₹2,500 each to 1,14,400 beneficiaries statewide. This includes 93,285 existing beneficiaries, 12,045 processed in March 2026, and 9,070 new families. Each farming household gets annual untied grant of ₹5,000 in two DBT tranches for seeds, feed, equipment.
Of the 9,070 new beneficiaries, 7,074 (78 per cent) are from Garo Hills, which accounts for 87,959 (76.9 per cent) of total beneficiaries. West Garo Hills leads with 37,330.
Registration will continue every three months with target of 2.5 to 3 lakh households, the CM said.
The programme also featured flagging off of AGEY vehicles for SHGs under MSRLS to boost market access and handing over of MegARISE Community Awards.
