Bangalore inching towards rainwater harvesting

Bangalore inching towards rainwater harvesting
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: ‘‘Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.’’ This not only describes the situation in Mumbai, but probably the future of Bangalore as well if ways to conserve water are not immediately introduced.

It’s the monsoon season, that time of the year when people begin considering rain water harvesting (RWH). But, sadly, not many implement it.

Despite the BCC making rainwater harvesting mandatory, several awareness campaigns and a good monsoon, less than 1 per cent of buildings (homes and offices included) in Bangalore have RWH facilities.

Says an NGO, the Rainwater Club, which promotes rainwater harvesting, only about 5,000 of an approximate eight lakh buildings in the city have gone in for rainwater harvesting.

So, what is stopping us from adopting this highly efficient technique of conserving water? RWH experts blame the highly subsidised water that we get.

‘‘Water is supplied at Rs 6 per kilolitre, whereas the production cost is as high as Rs 18,’’ informs RWH expert and founder of the Rainwater Club S Vishwanathan. ‘‘That’s why people don’t feel the need to save water.’’

‘‘It is disheartening to see people in urban areas wash their cars with potable water while in rural areas people wait for hours on end in serpentine queues for a single pot of water,’’ fumes B C Somasekharan a RWH expert.

People tend to save water only when there is a crisis, he says, agreeing that the best way to get people to implement RWH is by increasing the price of water, at least up to its production cost.

‘‘For every kilolitre of water supplied, the Water Board loses Rs 12. What they should do instead is offer the first 6,000 litres free to every home and from the 6001st litre onwards charge a higher price than the cost price on a slab basis,’’ explains Vishwanath.

Making RWH mandatory without creating adequate awareness is doomed to fail and will lead to corruption, as was the case in Chennai, he adds.

‘‘The BWSSB should also use its funds to promote RWH by organising awareness programmes about its benefits,’’ says Vishwanath.

BWSSB, however, says it is impossible to hike water rates. ‘‘We had a price revision in March when we increased the rate by 10 per cent. Price hike is a very sensitive issue,’’ says chairman of BWSSB S K Pattanayak.

But we are working on formulating a RWH policy and putting in place a mechanism to ensure that the BCC building by-laws which makes RWH mandatory are adhered to,’’ he added.