Rain water harvesting: Do or dry: BWSSB

Rain water harvesting: Do or dry: BWSSB


N R Madhusudhan | ENS First Published : 06 Sep 2010 11:35:50 AM ISTLast Updated : 06 Sep 2010 11:55:34 AM IST
BANGALORE: Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB)
may soon get the authority to act against building owners who have not installed rain water harvesting (RWH) system in their buildings.
A recent amendment to section 109 of the BWSSB Act empowers the utility to file cases against those who do not comply with its notices.
“We have requested the government to grant us permission to cut off the water
and sanitary connections of the buildings that are in the area of 2,400 sq ft or more if they do not have RWH system.
It might be approved in the forthcoming cabinet meeting,” said BWSSB chairman P B Ramamurthy.
“We will first cut off the connections and if the building owners do not comply
even after that, we will think of suing them,” he added. If found guilty, the building owners can be sentenced to six months imprisonment. The BWSSB has till now issued three notices to more than 54,000 building owners.
The utility has collected acknowledgements of the notice from the building owners. Therefore, it can sue the building owners whenever it
wants to. Though the last date to install the RWH system was
May 27, only 20,000 building owners have installed it. The BWSSB has started
collecting data about the buildings that have installed the RWH systems and is feeding it in its geographical information system.
The utility has conducted awareness programmes and written letters to 700 government offices, 3,000 schools and 2,300 BWSSB employees,
asking them to install the system in their buildings. Very few government offices
have approached the BWSSB, seeking assistance regarding RWH.
Around 400 BWSSB employees have already installed RWH systems in their
buildings and some of them have installed them even though their buildings are
situated in an area of less than 2,400 sq ft. The RWH park that is being
constructed at Jayanagar is nearing completion.