Despite the impending water crisis, Bangaloreans are pretty much blasé about conservation. Though the water board made rainwater harvesting (RWH) mandatory under the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage (Rainwater Harvesting) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 from July 7, 2011, only 44,760 people have complied so far.
Revealing this at a workshop, Urban Water Concerns, organised by Doddaballapura Community and Svaraj here Tuesday, BWSSB Minister S. Suresh Kumar said there are more than 10 lakh properties in the city, including six lakh in the core areas. Of these, only 44,470 have adopted RWH, which does not account for even 1 per cent.
Reiterating that water conservation should be a priority, the Minister said BWSSB had set up a theme park in Jayanagar to popularise RWH.
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Later speaking to reporters, Mr. Kumar said the water position was comfortable till April. “After that we are expecting rain. However, as summer is the time when water consumption is high, we appeal to people to use this precious resource judiciously; RWH will help in the long run.”
Poor implementation
Meanwhile, official sources said although the rules empower the BWSSB to disconnect water and sanitary lines of buildings that don’t adopt RWH, it has not been enforced yet. BWSSB had extended the initial December 31, 2011 deadline to March 31, 2012.
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“We had threatened disconnection over non-compliance but the officials concerned don’t seem to be serious about it.”
Although 55,000 buildings on sites measuring 60 ft x 40 ft were identified in 2011 for compulsorily adopting RWH, the number has doubled now because several new areas are now under the BWSSB’s supply zones.
“The BWSSB now has 7.25 lakh connections and at least one lakh of these [properties] have to compulsory install RWH,” the sources added.