The State Cabinet on Tuesday approved the setting up of the State Water Informatics Centre (SWIC).
Addressing media persons, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said the basic objective of the SWIC is to be the agency that is going to capture information related to water in the state in different levels whether it is the rain, water level in the streams, catchment areas, spring sheds and monitor them throughout the year.
“This is a part of the larger picture which is coming from the state as well as the central governments. This agency will help us to be able to keep the data information with us to be utilised in the correct manner for the respective departments ,” Sangma said.
Further elaborating, he said, “This centre will collect the data using satellites, man power in the grass root level, using drone technologies to survey and keep data.”
“This is the information database of analysing and recording the water movement in the state from now on to the coming years to allow us to make the decision on how we need to adjust based on climate change, adjust for farming activities, flood which are there,” the Chief Minister said.
It will share that data with concerned departments like PHE, soil conservation, agriculture, disaster management and so on and so forth so that proper informative decisions can be made. Hence, this is also mandated by the Government of India Jal Shakti Ministry, Sangma said.
He said that the nodal agency will be the department of water resources.