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Delhi Jal Board set to tap rainwater
After zeroing in on two NGOs, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has now come up with an action plan for rainwater harvesting (RWH) in the national Capital. HT reports.
After zeroing in on two NGOs, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has now come up with an action plan for rainwater harvesting (RWH) in the national Capital.
The two NGOs — Indian National Trust for Arts and Culture (INTACH) and Force — would help the Delhi Jal Board in implementing the much-needed RWH action plan, with a special focus on south and southwest districts, that have seen one of the worse declines in groundwater levels.
On an average, Delhi needs 1,025 million gallons per day (MGD) water daily — the quantum of demand shoots up in summer — but the Delhi jal Board is able to garner just about 835 MGD water from all sources.
Apart from about 100-odd MGD water extracted from ground officially by the Delhi jal Board, there is no record whatsoever of the quantity of ground water drawn by scores of domestic and industrial/commercial bore wells across Delhi.
The only way forward to tide over this situation is to go ahead with RWH units that can re-charge the ground water and also if stored, can be diverted for non-potable usage.
“We have already held meetings with south district commissioner and NGO Force last week and drawn an action plan for that district. Similarly, another meeting was held this week with south-west district commissioner and NGO INTACH for the south-west district,” Debashree Mukherjee, DJB CEO, said.
The two NGOs will help people identify the site for rainwater harvesting unit, provide technical know-how and also engage in follow-up.
The Delhi Jal Board will act as the facilitator and the two NGOs would also liase for getting permissions for the land for RWH units etc.
Mukherjee, the Delhi Jal Board chief executive officer, also said it has discontinued the practice of funding rainwater harvesting units to avoid duplication.
“Instead, everyone will get it from Delhi government’s ‘My Delhi I Care’ fund which has a dedicated corpus,” Mukherjee said.
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