Rain Water Harvesting- HDMC adopts novel scheme

Rain Water Harvesting- HDMC adopts novel scheme
Source: HDMC Website

Hubli/Dharwad:
Even as the state government drags its feet to enact a law to make rain water harvesting compulsory for all citizens, Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) is going ahead with its plan of giving 50 per cent incentive to any government department or educational institution which comes forward to adopt rain water harvesting in its building. However, the incentive is not applicable to individuals and private companies.

Although the government talks of making rain water harvesting unit mandatory for any individual who constructs a new house; it is not ready to pass a legislation to this effect. Without any backing of law, no urban development authority or urban local body can insist people to compulsorily have a rain water harvesting unit at the time of issuing building license or any other document. In spite of government's lackadaisical approach, some individuals are trying to promote rain water harvesting in a big way in Bangalore City. However, such campaigns are needed in other cities too.

In north Karnataka, people are at the mercy of Varuna (Rain God) because of absence of assured rainfall like southern Karnataka districts. This region reeled under severe drought for three successive years two years ago and people had a tough time in getting drinking water, let alone water for other purposes.

Luckily, the Rain God seems to be kind towards this region thanks to bountiful of rains in the last two years. Rain water harvesting is very much required for districts of north Karnataka because people can store water during rainy season and use it in summer. For them every drop of water is precious, especially during summer. Storing water during rainy season would definitely help them to at least meet their household requirements.

An officer of HDMC told Deccan Herald that twin cities were now becoming a favorite destination for people to settle down and their population had grown manifold in the last four to five years.

With banks offering housing loans at concessional rates people belonging to middle income group were showing interest to own houses. If the government passed a legislation making rain water harvesting unit compulsory for every house, it would become handy for the corporation to insist on the same.

At present the law says it was 'desirable' to have rain water harvesting unit in houses and under these circumstances the authorities concerned could not pressurize anybody to have it.

He said rain water harvesting got a boost in Tamil Nadu when Dr J Jayalalitha was chief minister and an act was passed in that regard. This helped the civic authorities to make it mandatory for all those who wished to construct new houses.

A similar step should be taken in Karnataka too keeping in view the growing demand for drinking water in almost all cities. Without waiting for the government, HDMC has already taken a bold step of giving 50 percent incentive to government departments or educational institutions which opt for rain water harvesting unit in their buildings. However, there has been 'lukewarm' response from a majority of departments. Every year, lakhs of liters of rain water goes into gutters without being stored. If that water is stored, it would definitely go a long way in meeting the drinking water requirements of citizens of twin cities, he noted.