Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi has directed the Public Works Department to work in tandem with the Pondicherry University to provide rainwater harvesting facility at Kalapet.
Ms. Bedi gave the direction after visiting Chemfab Alkalis, a company accused by a section of people at Kalapet of polluting groundwater, and the Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on Sunday.
In a release, Ms. Bedi said the company had put in place robust rainwater harvesting wells to capture run-off water.
The PIMS had agreed to set up rainwater harvesting facility on its campus at Kalapet.
The huge premises of PIMS and Pondicherry University would help a lot in harvesting rainwater and, consequently, improve water table in the Kalapet region. The steps taken to conserve rainwater would also help mitigate seawater intrusion, she said.
Operating procedure
At a consultative meeting with PWD officials held later in the day, Ms. Bedi directed the State Groundwater Authority to draw a detailed Standard Operating Procedure for providing online water meters and inspecting borewells registered with the Authority.
The Agriculture Department had been directed to bring out a water tariff policy to prevent misuse of water. The database of borewell users should also be compiled, the release said.
Ms. Bedi stressed the need for optimum utilisation of funds allotted by the the World Bank under the National Hydrology Project for profiling groundwater.
PWD Chief Engineer Shanmugasundaram and Superintending Engineer Sathiyamoorthi were present at the meeting.
