German funds for three northeast states

Lion’s share for Assam

Guwahati, Nov. 16: The German government has committed 56 million euros (Rs 387 crore) to three northeastern states for the Assam Ecological Resilience and Livelihood Adaptation project for climate change. The lion’s share, however, will go to Assam. An agreement was signed between the department of economic affairs and the German government in New Delhi late last month under Indo-German Bilateral Cooperation. “The nodal agency for the project in Assam would be the planning and development department as it involves a number of areas,” R.P. Agarwalla, a senior official of the state forest department and the nodal officer of the project, told this correspondent today. German Development Bank, which will be channelising the funds to the Centre, has indicated its willingness to commit 20 million euros more by next month, Agarwalla added. The other two northeastern states are Meghalaya and Sikkim. The areas included in the project are forests, wildlife, wetlands, agriculture, soil conservation, watershed management and disaster management. Climate change has cascading and far-reaching effects on almost every aspect of environment and society as already observed amply across the world. The next stage in the project is the preparation of a detailed project report for which the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore has been hired as the main consultant by German Development Bank. “Once the DPR is finalised and vetted, the final sanction would come,” Agarwalla said. The total tenure of the project will be seven years, of which one year will go in project preparation and the rest in its execution. Of 56 million euros, 55 million is a soft loan while 1 million euro will be a grant. The projects selected by the state government will have to be viable to be considered for funding and considerable study has to be done. The region has already been experiencing extreme rainfall, more frequent and intense floods, moderate to intense drought-like situations, flashfloods, increasing river bank erosion and sandcasting because of changing geomorphological behaviour of the rivers. The region suffers from excess of water and water crises. Drought-like situation in Assam in 2005 and 2006 had led to water scarcity in many areas of the state. Officials of the German Development Bank had come a few months back to hold consultations with different departments of the state government. to elicit views on the impact of climate change.

Lion’s share for Assam

Guwahati, Nov. 16: The German government has committed 56 million euros (Rs 387 crore) to three northeastern states for the Assam Ecological Resilience and Livelihood Adaptation project for climate change. The lion’s share, however, will go to Assam. An agreement was signed between the department of economic affairs and the German government in New Delhi late last month under Indo-German Bilateral Cooperation. “The nodal agency for the project in Assam would be the planning and development department as it involves a number of areas,” R.P. Agarwalla, a senior official of the state forest department and the nodal officer of the project, told this correspondent today. German Development Bank, which will be channelising the funds to the Centre, has indicated its willingness to commit 20 million euros more by next month, Agarwalla added. The other two northeastern states are Meghalaya and Sikkim. The areas included in the project are forests, wildlife, wetlands, agriculture, soil conservation, watershed management and disaster management. Climate change has cascading and far-reaching effects on almost every aspect of environment and society as already observed amply across the world. The next stage in the project is the preparation of a detailed project report for which the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore has been hired as the main consultant by German Development Bank. “Once the DPR is finalised and vetted, the final sanction would come,” Agarwalla said. The total tenure of the project will be seven years, of which one year will go in project preparation and the rest in its execution. Of 56 million euros, 55 million is a soft loan while 1 million euro will be a grant. The projects selected by the state government will have to be viable to be considered for funding and considerable study has to be done. The region has already been experiencing extreme rainfall, more frequent and intense floods, moderate to intense drought-like situations, flashfloods, increasing river bank erosion and sandcasting because of changing geomorphological behaviour of the rivers. The region suffers from excess of water and water crises. Drought-like situation in Assam in 2005 and 2006 had led to water scarcity in many areas of the state. Officials of the German Development Bank had come a few months back to hold consultations with different departments of the state government. to elicit views on the impact of climate change.