DJB to renew efforts on rainwater harvesting

Lack of awareness, procedural delays, ignorance about sources of funding and poor maintenance of existing structures were few of the problems plaguing the rainwater-harvesting (RWH) scheme in Delhi, specially the one being advocated for Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), it emerged during a workshop on Thursday.

Lack of awareness, procedural delays, ignorance about sources of funding and poor maintenance of existing structures were few of the problems plaguing the rainwater-harvesting (RWH) scheme in Delhi, specially the one being advocated for Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), it emerged during a workshop on Thursday.

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The government and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) admitted these indeed are problems faced by citizens and committed to renewed efforts for making RWH a success to tide over water shortage at the workshop ‘Rainwater Harvesting: Sustainable Solutions to Water Problems of NCT Delhi’.

“Rain water harvesting has not caught up as much as we had thought,” admitted Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit.

“If we can bring down power wastage from 52% to 17%, we can make an effort to bring down water wastage from 40% to 17% too,” she said.

Jyoti Sharma, president of NGO Force working in the field of water conservation, pointed out: “Technical input for RWH is not freely available, the cost involved in raising RWH infrastructure is high and moreover, citizens are not aware the various schemes of funding available for RWH in colonies.”

Added RK Vohra from RWA Vasant Vihar, “Why can’t the procedure be simplified? We have done all other preparation, got funds etc but have been waiting for road cutting permission for months now.”

Stating that DJB has realized that its present scheme of RWH is not acceptable to people, Dr Bipin Behari, additional CEO DJB, “The workshop will help us understand the problems and come up with better eco-friendly yet cost-effective scheme in terms of construction and maintenance.”

He also promised all possible help for smooth RWH schemes across colonies, bigger building complexes, hospitals and even ASI monuments.