00:00Cook, clean, farm, fetch water, repeat.
00:05Single mother Monica Nongroom's days used to leave her without a single minute of rest.
00:13Back then, we had to collect water in the traditional way,
00:18using bamboo channels from the source.
00:24We had to wait in long lines.
00:27This was one of the main challenges, especially for our children.
00:35They struggled to manage, as they had to fetch and fill water first,
00:39and then hurry to school.
00:48These days, her routine is pretty much the same,
00:51except for one major change.
00:53Now, she can finally get water, just steps from her home.
01:03We are in Mohsinram, which holds a Guinness World Record for the highest average annual rainfall,
01:09receiving nearly 1,200 centimeters of rain each year.
01:16And yet, in one of the wettest places on earth,
01:20villagers like Monica have had to plan their entire day around the availability of water,
01:25often losing hours each day in the process.
01:33We used to go to the neighboring spring at Phutkor, which is about 500 meters away from here.
01:45We have to walk for around 15 to 20 minutes to reach there.
01:49But it takes another 30 minutes to return,
01:54as we have to watch our steps while carrying water on our backs.
01:58We have to walk for a lot of rain.
02:00We have to walk for a lot of rain.
02:05Meghalaya lies within the Barak Meghana river basin.
02:09Yet, even in high rainfall areas like Monica's village, Pongkung,
02:14steep terrain, rocky geology, deforestation and changing land use cause rainwater to run off quickly,
02:21leaving little to recharge the underground aquifers that feed springs.
02:27This is environmental scientist B.K. Tiwari.
02:31He studied Meghalaya's paradoxical rainfall patterns for decades.
02:35The Meghalaya receives highest rainfall,
02:37but this highest rainfall is confined only to a small area,
02:43near Cherrapunji and Moussin Ram and that plateau.
02:47The rest of Meghalaya receives up to 250-300 cm rainfall, which is not very high.
02:54Then again, the rain is confined to about six months in a year.
02:58Otherwise, it's dry.
03:00Particularly the months of December to February is quite dry.
03:08Across Meghalaya, nearly 80% of people depend on springs for their daily water.
03:15These are natural outlets where groundwater reaches the surface.
03:19But many of these springs, once perennial, are now becoming seasonal.
03:24Climate change has definitely caused some variability in distribution of rain and intensity of rain.
03:32The population is increasing, and the consumption and production is increasing.
03:39So, this has definitely put pressure on most of the natural resources, including water.
03:49But the region is finally getting some help.
03:53Youth volunteers like Kinti Vlang Kharbani are stepping in to protect the springs their communities rely on.
03:59They trek across the hills, tracing water sources, mapping recharge zones, and digging contour trenches.
04:08They also plant native trees to help rainwater seep back into the ground.
04:13They're not just fixing the point where water emerges, but restoring the entire spring shed,
04:19the hidden underground system that keeps a spring alive.
04:23We could construct more spring chambers and maintain them so the residents no longer face any problems.
04:29We have this sense of responsibility that we have to preserve and maintain, especially when it comes to water resources
04:34available.
04:38What began as youth activism soon grew into a statewide effort.
04:45In just over one year, more than 55,000 springs across Meghalaya were documented,
04:51helping identify which were drying up and where urgent action is needed.
04:57Since 2014, these grassroots efforts have been supported and expanded by the state under the Spring Protection Initiative.
05:07Vankit Keswar, Deputy Project Director at the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority,
05:12now helps coordinate and guide this work across the region,
05:15bringing together local communities and government efforts.
05:18We leverage on the power of the communities.
05:21We only give them the devices, show them how to calibrate, how to measure.
05:25And we were able to monitor a number of parameters, like for example,
05:29the amount of dissolved solids that it has, salinity, electrical conductivity,
05:36to physical aspects like discharge, hours of discharge every month,
05:40and so all were dependent on these springs in the village.
05:44But restoring springs in Meghalaya is not just about water.
05:48It's also about land.
05:51Nearly 95% of land here is owned by clans and families under customary law,
05:56not by the government.
05:58That means many springs lie on private land, even though entire villages depend on them.
06:04Managing water therefore requires negotiation, trust and collective agreement,
06:09especially when landowners no longer live there or when community land is scarce.
06:19There are many good examples where private owners have full-heartedly given their land.
06:25But you still encounter those issues in many places where they don't have community lands,
06:29then the limit of your interventions becomes smaller.
06:36Back in Monica's village, the springs are flowing again.
06:40Over a dozen have been restored and are now maintained by residents like her,
06:45through regular cleaning, monitoring and protection.
06:52We have organised ourselves into groups of 10 members per week,
06:56following a scheduled routine, where we clean the springshed regularly.
07:02It proved to be a tremendous advantage for our village,
07:06as we could now collect water at any time without having to wait in long lines.
07:19In Meghalaya's rain-drenched hills, community members have taken it upon themselves to revive drying springs,
07:25so that families like Monica's no longer have to hike miles in search of water.
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