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Civic bodies’ tepid response to govt plan
Municipal corporations and municipalities across the State are yet to fall in line with the State government’s policy to harvest every drop of rainwater following growing shortage of water supply for the household consumption. According to the sources in the Directorate of Municipal Administration and Urban Development, there is a specific law mandating the civic bodies to approve building plans o
Hyderabad: Municipal corporations and municipalities across the State are yet to fall in line with the State government’s policy to harvest every drop of rainwater following growing shortage of water supply for the household consumption.
According to the sources in the Directorate of Municipal Administration and Urban Development, there is a specific law mandating the civic bodies to approve building plans only if the permissions sought had provisions for a rainwater harvesting system.
However, “it has turned into a farce for so long as the civic bodies failed to seriously implement the same.” Even the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had adopted a similar attitude for decades resulting in people in several parts of the twin cities like KPHB, Nagole and others forced to dig as deep as 500 feet to 1,500 feet for water.
Giving details of the importance of the rainwater harvesting, a senior official from the Directorate of Groundwater department pointed out that Hyderabad city receives about 900mm of annual rainfall. Even, if, we take an annual average of 600 mm rainfall in twin cities the same would help in meeting more than 50 per cent of the household consumption, he said.
For example, a rainfall of 1 mm, every square metre receives comes to 1 litre of rain water. And, civic bodies would not approve plans to build apartments on land admeasuring less than 500 square feet.
Given the 600 mm average rainfall in twin cities, “every apartment in the twin cities would be in a position to augment more than 2.5 lakh litres of rain water annually. The same could meet about 60 per cent of the household consumption in a year,” the official pointed out. Besides, it would cut down the power bills as well as investments to dig multiple bore wells, the official said.
According to the reports with the State municipal administration department, similar situation prevails in Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and other civic bodies in the State.
Further, another key issue is that for the last three years civic bodies in the State have been refusing to give approvals to build apartments and other buildings seeking permissions without rainwater harvesting structure. But, there is no mechanism with the civic bodies to verify whether the rainwater harvesting systems are functional once the plan has been approved, said the official from the groundwater department.
It was against this backdrop that the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) had been given the task to encourage people to construct community and individual rain harvesting structures. However, it has been struggling for the last two years to convince people on the same.
And, out of 10,000 rainwater harvesting structures it had planned to construct by the end of June this year, so far, it could not cross halfway mark of the target, indicating the government’s move to harvest every rain drop remained a distant dream, the sources pointed out.
By V R C Phaniharan
