The civic administration and political parties are gearing up for rainwater conservation programmes as the south-west monsoon is expected to hit the Kochi coast within a fortnight.
The rainwater harvesting programme of the Kochi Corporation, which was conceived as part of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), will begin next week. Though the civic body has funds for providing 1,200 rainwater harvesting units, only 400 will be installed considering the poor public response. Harvested water will be filtered to make it potable.
At the household level, only 85 individual applicants have approached the civic body so far for installation of the facility.
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Meanwhile, the civic body has decided to install at least six units each at 30 government schools and 12 public hospitals within the corporation limits. In addition, it will install the facility free of cost in 65 houses at Thanthonnithuruthu, taking the total number of units to 400. The authorities expect more applications in the coming days.
While one unit costs ₹11,000 and the beneficiary needs to pay ₹2,750, the rest will be in the form of subsidy from AMRUT, officials said.
Water collection
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The CPI(M) and its mass and class organisations will set up around 2 lakh pits in the district for collecting rainwater. The programme will be implemented on May 20 and 21. All party members who own holdings will dig pits in their holdings, said a statement issued by P. Rajeev, district secretary of the party. The party had led the campaign for cleaning up 40 ponds in the district. DYFI volunteers had cleaned up around 100 waterbodies in the district as part of the national conference of the organisation, the statement said.