Erratic fund flow hampers German-funded project in Ukhrul
Source: Chronicle News Service / R Lester Makang

Ukhrul, May 07 2022: After a promising start in 2019, implementation of the ambitious project titled 'Community Based Sustainable Forest Management' (CBSFM-Manipur), an Indo-Geman project, in Ukhrul district is apparently stuck in a rut due to inconsistent fund flow in recent years.

There are also allegedly some hiccups in its implementation owing to what the locals called 'appointment of implementing agency only to NGOs from the outside', which could not regularly visit the villages and monitor the work progress.

The project that aims to improve conservation of water sources in catchment areas of the district is being funded by a Germany-based agency KFW and is implemented in 25 villages of the district by three NGOs namely, VEDAS, PARDA and CAPARV under the aegis of the Community Forestry & Water Conservation Society, Manipur (CF&WCS-M).

This came to the fore during a review mission conducted by a team of KFW's official representatives namely project manager Jan Eric Voss, portfolio manager (Natural Resources & Climate Asia) Jonas Muller and procurement expert Lydia Prymachenko in two villages namely, Choithar and Shirui.

The two villages are among the eight villages of the district covered by NGO VEDAS.

The KFW team was accompanied by Ukhrul DFO Shanngam Shali; senior sector specialist of KFW Office New Delhi Sangeeta Aggarwal; CTA, GFA Manohar Shrestha; ACTA, GFA K Hrishikesh; AO/DFO Thoubal Th Lokendro; and FMCA, GFA S Ruhi Kumar during the review mission.

As part of the review exercise, KFW offi-cials held interactions with the local Water Resources Conservation Groups (WRCGs) and Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and surveyed the sites of nursery, tree plantation and water reservoir tanks in the villages.

During the interaction held at Choithar village, local SHG members expressed dismay at the irregular funding pattern.

They said that there was no release of any fund during the past few years and they had assumed that the project had winded up.

However, this year, only four new SHGs received a fund of Rs 40,000 each as revolving fund.

There are eight SHGs in the village but the fund was not released to the other four SHGs which are supposed to receive an income generating fund, they said.

SHG members said that with the fund received, they have taken up income generation activities like farming, rearing of livestock and others.

During a visit to the water reservoir tank constructed by WRCG Choithar village under COSFOM-KFW in the year 2019-20, it was found that the tank did not have proper inlet and outlet facilities.

The locals said that they were not given proper instruction for inclusion of the facilities in the tank.

It is learnt that an amount of Rs 2 lakh was provided to Choithar WRCG as first Entry Point Activity (EPA) in 2019 for the construction of the water tank with a capacity of 15200 litres.

The team also visited community nursery site where seedlings of tree species like Quercus SPP, Castanopsis SPP and Cedrella SPP were nurtured by the local WRCG.

Members of six SHGs in Shirui village informed the visiting team that they have undertaken tree plantation with the funds received this year.

While expressing gratitude to the visiting team for bringing the project to the village, chairman of Shirui WRGG Salma Hongray said that the locals faced certain difficulties in the implementation as the implementing agency concerned did not visit them regularly, apart from delay in fund disbursement.

He appealed to the visiting team to appoint local NGOs in order to ensure success of the project.

In 2019, CF&WCS-M released first instalment fund amounting to Rs 2 lakh for construction of water tank with a capacity of 15200 litres to Shirui WRCG as first EPA.

Accordingly, the Shirui WRCG constructed three water tanks at Shanghnao Tang, Khongmeireng Tang and Kahor Tang.

The three tanks are already functional with proper water pipe connections.

On July 22, 2020, the Project Management Unit (PMU) of COSFOM/KfW through Community Forestry & Water Conservation Society, Manipur released a sum of Rs 3,87,570 to WRCC Shirui Village, Rs 4,02,650 to WRCC Choithar village and Rs 4,08,055 to WRCC Langdang village through bank transfer towards implementation of project related activities like mixed species afforestation, forest area closure, aided natural regeneration, riparian buffer afforestation, riparian buffer area closure and riparian buffer aided natural regeneration.

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