As part of its reinvigorated campaign to ask residents to construct or refurbish rainwater harvesting structures, the Coimbatore Corporation has now planned to engage students.
Commissioner G. Latha told The Hindu that the civic body will engage college students for two tasks – one, to conduct a survey to find out how many residential, commercial and industrial structures have rainwater harvesting structures; two, to ask them to come up low-cost rainwater harvesting structure design.
The second will be a competition.
Ms. Latha said that the move to engage the students was part of its efforts to create awareness among residents and also ensure that they did construct rainwater harvesting structures.
As announced by Mayor S.M. Velusamy, the Corporation would ask builders and property developers to construct rainwater harvesting structures in open space reserve in the projects they were working on.
The Corporation had decided to issue building plan approval only if the structures were part of the design. As for the existing structures, the Corporation would work out ways and means to ensure that occupants or owners of those buildings also complied with the rule to mandatorily construct the structures. She added that the Corporation had also planned an exhibition on rainwater water harvesting technology. The date and venue were yet to be decided, though.
On Friday, the Coimbatore Corporation officials led by Mr. Velusamy, Ms. Latha, Deputy Mayor Leelavathi Unni, MLA R. Doraisamy, Vice-Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University K. Ramasamy and councillors took part in an awareness rally from the Corporation main office in Town Hall to the VOC Park Grounds.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Velusamy said that the residents should come forward to construct rainwater harvesting structures and also conserve rain water in every possible way.
Students, who participated in the rally, carried placards that highlighted the importance of having such structures, planting saplings and going green.
