The skies may have finally opened up despite a slow start to the monsoon. But not all households are utilising the showers to their advantage. They are, quite literally, letting the water go down the drains.
Despite many government orders and deadlines imposed by the BWSSB, rain water harvesting has still not been successfully implemented by all households the city.
Currently, 50,328 connections of rain water harvesting have been done in Bangalore city. BWSSB authorities said that about 30 per cent of the overall households on 40X60 sites in the city had not complied with the orders. Now, the BWSSB has made it mandatory for all new constructions, even on 30X40 plots, to have RWH installations.
While December 2012 was the deadline for installing rain water harvesting connections in houses in 40X60 sites, even warnings to cut off water supply had not worked in some cases, said Engineer in Chief, T. Venkataraju.
Authorities say that it is still mandatory for all 40X60 plots to have RWH connections. However, they seem to plead helpless when it comes to strictly enforcing the rule among the existing plots. It is still mandatory to install RWH connections in all households and action can be initiated against those who have not implemented the rule. “While we are strictly monitoring the new constructions, the existing plots’ occupants have given excuses to implement the rule. If we have threatened to cut off water supply, the residents have created a hue and cry, and we cannot even cut off the supply completely since it is a basic utility,” they said.
However, there are some citizens who have taken up rain water harvesting on their own. S. Vishwanath, a member of the Rain Water Club, who has been carrying out rain water harvesting for about 24 years, says that due to the voluntary rain water harvesting projects, an estimated 1.5 lakh RWH connections are provided in the city.
He says that the uptake on rainwater harvesting has been phenomenal especially in the peripheral areas including Electronic City or Peenya Industrial Area. “The BWSSB can only record those numbers where the supply is being provided by the water body.
Many apartments on the periphery where the water supply is still in the process, have already started carrying out the rain water harvesting on a large scale,” he said.
