With the monsoon over the horizon, the government seems to have woken up to the necessity of Rainwater Water Harvesting Structure (RWHS) and it now appears to be serious about implementing recommendations made by a committee of experts.
Citizens will really feel the heat if the RWHS regulations are not implemented in letter and spirit as a prime suggestion is to cut off water and power connections to the building owner if such a structure is not built on the premises.
Another suggestion is for the local municipal authority to recover the cost of construction of the structure along with incidental expenses akin to collection of property tax or water bill if it is not provided for!
Zero wastage
Institutions with large land parcels like educational ones, gated communities and others functioning from more than five acres should not allow a single drop of rain water to go waste and hence, should design rainwater harvesting structures accordingly in order to achieve zero wastage.
All the public parks too should have the structures after proper filtration, wherever feasible, it said.
High Court directive
This is part of the Action Plan for Urban Local Bodies - ULBs (municipal corporations, municipalities & urban development authorities) suggested by experts constituted by the government following a High Court directive on making such structures a must in all properties to conserve rainwater.
Incidentally, the government has decided to accept all the recommendations.
Database
Another interesting idea accepted is to collect data on existing rainwater harvesting structures and to create database linking to Property Tax Identification Number (PTIN) of GHMC and Customer Account Number (CAN) of HMWSSB in case of all existing structures along with geo-tagging (location with latitude, longitude & altitude).
For “effective implementation”, the panel sought an independent ‘Rain Water Harvesting Cell’ in GHMC’s Town Planning Wing to look after all the related activities and to disseminate the information through the public portal to all the ULBs.
Experts panel
The committee of experts included Director (Technical) HMWSSB; R. Devendra Prasad, Deputy Director, Ground Water Department; G.D. Ojha, ex-Regional Director Central, Ground Water Board; J. Satyanarayana, ex-Asst. Director, Ground Water Department; Prof. Venkateshwar Rao and Prof . M.V.S.S Giridhar - Senior Faculty, JNTU.
Responsibilities
The proposed new cell is to be shouldered with the responsibility to collect information of defunct bore-wells and take necessary steps to recharge surplus rain water at feasible locations, co-ordinate all the activities, take up awareness and training programs too. Besides, it would also be providing technical advice on design of RWHS, data collection of new structures, their monitoring & evaluation of the structures, etc.
The Water Board had already decided to insist non-residential areas such as industries, institutions and large open areas etc., to construct RWHS under ‘Jalabhagyam’ with owners bearing the costs within the ORR limits of Hyderabad.
To prevent choking, a low cost a perforated HDPE membrane (about 1OO-125 microns) as top layer for all existing structures was also suggested.
