German Development Bank, KFW as part of its fight against climate change has begun funding community-based water resources conservation projects in Manipur. The first village-level implementation body was formed under its Community-based Sustainable Forest Management for Water Resources Conservation in Manipur, COSFOM, in Konsakhul village in the Singda sub-division, one out of over 50 villages identified project villages in Manipur. Konsakhul is a watershed project area for policy intervention to regenerate depleting forest covers to replenish soil water retention capacity. This will in turn help restore perennial water availability in the streams and rivulets in the hills and the major rivers of the valley area these rivulets feed.

A press release by the German Bank-funded project further stated that implementation bodies will be formed in each of the project villages and they will be known as the Water Resource Conservation Group, WRCG. These bodies will be democratically elected and will have voluntary representations from all stakeholders within the villages, such as women, youth, church representatives. The WRCGs will be the ultimate planners and implementers of the project and will handle all project funds allocated for the village.

The first beneficiaries will be the project villages. Besides addressing water scarcity in the project areas, various livelihood assist programs and entry point activities of the project will be taken up. The benefits of replenishing the forest and soil in these hills will extend to the entire lengths of the rivers they feed, and ultimately also be an important intervention towards a reversal in the global climate change.
The watersheds chosen in the first phase of the project are Kounu ranges which feed the Singda River and Nambul beyond it, the Koubru ranges which feed the Imphal River, and the Shirui ranges which feed the Thoubal River system.

Three villages each from these three watersheds will be where the project is launched. The are Maohing, Changoubung, and Lungphou in the Imphal River watershed, Konsakhul, Kharam Vaiphei and Ireng Naga in the Singda watershed, and Shirui, Langdang, and Choither in the Shirui watershed.

The Project Director of the Manipur sector of this ambitious project that targets to ultimately cover the entire Eastern Himalayan region is the additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, PCCF of Manipur forest department, Ng. Kipgen. A major portion of the KFW fund comes to the Government of India as a soft loan and a small percentage as a grant. The project is scheduled for seven years in its first phase, but extendable to 11 years. The project is a part of the initiative of the German government to contribute to the fight against climate change.