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Tide over water crisis, harvest rainwater: Navi Mumbai residents
The water woes of 28 families living in Angan cooperative housing society at Sector 19 in Kharghar have ended.
The water woes of 28 families living in Angan cooperative housing society at Sector 19 in Kharghar have ended.
Two months ago, residents adopted rainwater harvesting and since then they have enough water.
Brijesh Patel, a member of the housing society, said, “City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) has been supplying us water. But, it is not enough. We used to spend ₹2,000 a day for water tankers.”
The housing society spent ₹30,000 to install the rainwater harvesting system.
“All we had to do was to install a pipe and good quality filter. Rainwater from the rooftop is channelised through the pipe to the storage tank,” said Patel.
The residents have been using water for drinking after filtering. “The tanker water was smelly and we had no choice but to drink that after filtering. Rain water is clean as we ensure that the pipe is cleaned regularly,” said Patel.
Like Angan Cooperative society, around 15 housing societies at Kharghar and Roadpali too started saving rainwater.
Amar Pal, 50, a committee member from Sarveshwar Society, Roadpali, said, “We took the initiative of rainwater harvesting after we saw some housing societies adopt it.”
They sought the residents’ consent and adopted rainwater harvesting.
“We had to relay new pipes hence installation cost was more,” said Pal.
Heavy rainfall in the past two months has helped the housing society collect enough water to tide over water crisis.
According to directive by National Green Tribunal (NGT), installation of rainwater harvesting is mandatory for housing societies approved after 2014.
Jamir Lengrekar, deputy commissioner of Panvel City Municipal Corporation (PCMC), said, “Before giving permission for new constructions, we ensure that the builder has a plan for rainwater harvesting. We have asked housing societies to ensure that rainwater harvesting system is functional. We are also planning to conduct checks whether the system is working in housing societies.”
PCMC nodes, particularly Kharghar and Roadpali, faced water crisis this year.
Ravi Srivastava, a Kharghar-based activist, said, “The civic bodies give permissions for new projects but fail to check whether they have adopted the water-saving method. Rainwater harvesting plan is only on paper and is implemented by a handful of new buildings. No action and no survey is done to check whether the system is functional.”
Priya Ratambe, public relations officer, Cidco said, “We ensure that all new constructions have a plan for rainwater harvesting. We will soon carry out survey whether the system is functioning.”
Experts said more people need to be educated on how to save and use rainwater.
PF Ramakrishna, geologist and an expert in rain water harvesting, said, “Though awareness has increased, more housing societies need to come forward and adopt the green initiative.”
He said the installation and maintenance cost too has decreased. “If the system is installed during the initial phase of construction of a building, the cost is not much. This will benefit residents for years,” said Ramakrishna.
