Odisha has come up with more than 10,000 rainwater harvesting structures (RWHS) to facilitate water conservation and groundwater recharge in 114 towns in less than three-month time before onset of south-west monsoon.
A State-wide campaign on the theme ‘Catch the Rain: Where it Falls and When it Falls’ was launched on April 15 across all urban local bodies under Mukhyamantri Karma Tatpara Abhiyan Yojana (MUKTA), an urban wage employment scheme for migrant labourers.
The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) department has selected 15,000 sites for RWHS. “As of now 10,176 RWHS have been completed. The department expected to achieve the figure of 12,000 by July 10,” said the State government in a statement.
Water surplus State
Annual rainfall in Odisha varies from 1200 mm to 1800 mm making it a water surplus State.
“Though the average rainfall in Odisha is measured as 1,400 mm, its spatial distribution is uneven and erratic. The State receives about 76% of rainfall between the period of mid-June and mid-September and receives the remaining 24% of the rainfall throughout the year,” the government said.
The State has both coastal region and high land. “There is ample scope to arrest the surface runoff where it fall using contour techniques. The best possible option is to tap the runoff through construction of RWHS, there by addressing the key challenge of water scarcity in urban areas of the State,” it said.
The RWHS, which are being constructed in parks, playgrounds, open spaces and in vacant lands inside the institutions, have been planned in all the 2035 wards across 114 ULBs of the State.
To further strengthen transparency and accountability measures, the HUD department has decided to introduce social audit as a tool for performance improvement and outcome measurement on a pilot basis.
