Rain gods give in plenty, government disposes it

Rain gods give in plenty, government disposes it
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Even as the government toys with the idea of an ordinance making rain water harvesting (RWH) mandatory for all buildings in urban local bodies of the State, the Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) which has the power of enforcing this rule has been lax in doing so.

Consequently, the bountiful rainfall this year is going waste without being harvested either for immediate use or ground water recharge.

Bangalore alone receives precipitation to yield 1847 MLD of water round the year - higher than the city's demand of 1150 MLD even during drought.

But, so far no city in the State is enforcing RWH. In fact, no urban local body in the state has any rule framed in this regard. The BCC, which has well formulated rules on rain water harvesting, has not implemented the idea.

Nature's Bounty Ignored: The city receives a normal annual rainfall of 970mm over an area of 2190 square kms. Forecasting from the data available with the Central Ground Water Board, even a moderate 400mm rainfall amounts to 1847 MLD of water. On the other hand the government is pumping in Rs 3640 crore for II Phase of Cauvery IV Stage works to bring in 50MLD more water to the city.

BCC Inaction: Though the revised building bylaws of BCC make rain water harvesting systems mandatory for all buildings on sites larger than 60 X 40 from July 2004, the civic body has not implemented the rules.

BCC Commissioner K Jothiramalingam told this paper that the owners violating the rule attract a monthly fine of Rs 1000. But, no one has been fined so far.

Government Sits on the Ordinance: The sources in Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) said that the government is sitting on a proposal to make RWH compulsory in all urban local bodies for an year.

‘‘Two years ago we had issued a direction seeking all government and semi-government buildings to have RWH systems. But, even that is not fully implemented,'' the sources said.