Rainwater harvesting systems on display

As part of the initiative to spread the message of rainwater harvesting, the school education department on Thursday organised an exhibition featuring models for water conservation at the Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Erode.

Students representing a number of schools displayed the models that explained suitability of rainwater harvesting mechanisms to various kinds of buildings in different climatic zones. The best three exhibits were chosen for awarding of prizes, Chief Educational Officer P. Ayyannan said.

The State Government had instructed the school education department to conduct rallies, and programmes to spread the message of water harvesting well before the onset of rainy season.

All schools in the district have submitted to the education department the photo documents of the rainwater harvesting system they have created. The State Government had fixed this month-end as deadline.

Many of the government schools took the financial support of philanthropists to put in place the rainwater harvesting mechanism, official sources said.

Campaign

On its part, the City Corporation has plans to paste stickers on buildings to signify their compliance with norms for installation of rainwater harvesting systems.

Having installed rainwater harvesting system in its buildings, the civic body was now reaching out to commercial buildings through campaigns, said Corporation Commissioner M. Vijayalakshmi.

The initiative to monitor compliance by commercial buildings would be akin to the system of population census exercise that involves pasting of stickers in front of houses that have been covered, the Commissioner said.

The corporation has been, over the last few months, creating awareness among the public through conduct of rallies involving school students, explaining the significance of the initiative to people visiting the corporation office, conveying information through public address system, and distribution of pamphlets in residential localities. While rainwater harvesting system is a mandatory requirement for approval of new buildings, old buildings are covered under the campaign.