Usually, this is the time of the year when the civic departments such as Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) get busy trying to get the existing Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) structures functioning and encourage the citizens to dig new ones to prepare for the coming monsoon.
Alas, little seems to be moving on this front though the Telangana government is busy with the ‘Mission Kakatiya’ scheme to rejuvenate water bodies. Though civic officials say that they have done their job and constructed RWH pits in the city as planned, several Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) claim that very little work has been done, apart from non-implementation of proposed plans as well.
“Last year, the GHMC had initiated a proposal where it had promised to reimburse 50 per cent of the expenses to citizens who construct RWH pits. Some nine people had constructed such pits thinking they would get back half the money they spent, but received nothing,” claimed G.V. Rao from Greater Alwal Allied Service Association (GAASA).
Y.V. Ramakrishna, a resident of Alwal, concurred with Mr. Rao. He said he had constructed a RWH pit in his independent house, spending about Rs.16,000. “But in spite of applying a year ago for the 50 per cent subsidy reimbursement and even after the division engineers concerned visited my house to check whether the work was done, the municipal corporation has not given me anything,” he lamented.
Dr. Rao Chilekani, from the United Federation of Resident Welfare Associations (UFERWAS), who was on a committee appointed by the erstwhile government of Andhra Pradesh to ensure that provisions of the A. P. Water Land and Trees Act 2002 were implemented, too agreed with them.
Pointing out that as per the Act, it was mandatory to have a RWH pit in newly constructed homes, he explained: “Even the HMWSSB had started a similar programme, but it did not take off. We made several attempts with civic officials, but nothing happened finally,” he said.
However, senior civic officials claimed to have been grounding the works at regular intervals . GHMC Chief City Planner (CCP) Devender Reddy said that work to construct RWH pits in the city is an ongoing scheme and many such structures do exist in different parts. “As per norms, we ensure before giving the occupancy certificate to apartment buildings that RWH pits are constructed. And for small independent homes, money is collected from owners which is used to make those structures outside in nearby parks,” he mentioned.
