Shillong, May 22: The Centre has asked Meghalaya to emulate a water harvesting project of an Andhra Pradesh village to preserve water in Cherrapunjee.

At a news conference held here, Rita Sinha, the secretary of the central department of land resources, said the Centre wanted to explore the best method to prevent soil erosion as a means to preserve water in Cherrapunjee.

She cited a case of Kothapalli village in Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh, which recorded the most number of suicide cases of farmers. Initially, there were no water tables in Kothapally village and the digging of wells did not bear any fruit. But after the watershed projects were taken up, there was a sea change in the village.

Once an area known for its water scarcity, the villagers turned into a place where water was in abundance — both for farming and household activities. To a question, Sinha said the Meghalaya government need not replicate the Andhra model in Cherrapunjee considering the differences in terrain.

“We can only borrow some ideas from Andhra Pradesh and experiment the ways and means to check soil erosion in Cherrapunjee,” Sinha said.

The director of state water and soil conservation department, K.C. Momin, said the department had erected a few water conservation structures in Cherrapunjee besides adopting water-harvesting measures. The central officials will visit Cherrapunjee tomorrow for an on-the-spot assessment to find the reasons that have led to high soil erosion. Last month, the Planning Commission too had asked the state government to adopt measures to end the water crisis at the earliest.

The plan panel assured the Donkupar Roy government that it was ready to fund any project to help resolve the problem. Cherrapunjee, 55km from Shillong, holds the record for the highest amount of rainfall in a day — 1,563 mm on June 16, 1995, and highest rainfall in a year — 24,553mm in 1974.