Pimpri Chinchwad: Rain water harvesting will be made compulsory in Pimpri Chinchwad for all new residential and commercial buildings with an area of 20,000 sq mt, senior civic officials said. Implementing rain water harvesting for old buildings would be some what difficult, they added.
The urban development ministry has recently sent letters to all municipal corporations on cities facing severe drinking water crisis when many having sufficient rainfall.
A significant quantity of water is lost in leakages in the pipeline distribution system. Due to rapid urbanization, there is over exploitation of ground water.
Municipal corporations have a special responsibility to create and maintain rain water harvesting systems at all public spaces and public buildings. "It will act as a demonstration project. Citizens can come forward and voluntarily install these systems in their existing buildings," the letter added.
The ministry has said that although many states have already made provisions for mandating rain water harvesting in their building bye-laws, it is seen that the implementation and monitoring at the municipal corporation level is not that effective.
The ministry said it has issued model building bye-laws 2016 which include updated provisions for rain water harvesting besides various mechanisms for effective monitoring and implementation.
It has asked municipal corporations to adopt these provisions which include creation of a monitoring cell in the city, and empanelment of various agencies for facilitating residents who are interested in having rain water harvesting installed at their homes. The municipal corporations need to make concerted efforts with active participation of citizens for implementation of rain water harvesting systems.