Rain water harvesting is the way forward

Next door Delhi has the answer to Gurgaon’s water problem. Ask residents of Mandakini Enclave in Alaknanda where rain water harvesting plants are nothing short of a miracle. When the colony RWA decided to come up with a plant in 2007 no one knew what to expect. Mallica Joshi reports.

Next door Delhi has the answer to Gurgaon’s water problem. Ask residents of Mandakini Enclave in Alaknanda where rain water harvesting plants are nothing short of a miracle. When the colony RWA decided to come up with a plant in 2007 no one knew what to expect.

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“The water table here has risen by 10 metres,” said Shubh Sharda, RWA member, who measures the level weekly. “The DJB borewells were not reliable, but since the rain water harvesting plants have come up, we have had no troubles,” he added.

Today, Mandakini Enclave has six rainwater harvesting plants. This has also won the RWA the award for the ‘Best Rain Water Harvester, 2009’.

Mandakini Enclave is not the only success story. Residents of Greater Kailash R-Block have used water harvesting plants for a dual purpose—to battle the drop in the water table and to solve the water logging problem.

The RWA has chosen those spots to build rain water harvesting tanks where water logging used to be a big problem.

“This way the water will not stay on the roads and will accumulate in the tanks,” says U.C. Mathur, RWA secretary. The colony has two water harvesting tanks, one of which solved the water logging problem. The third one is under construction.

“If the correct technology is used and maintained, rainwater harvesting is successful everywhere,” said Jyoti Sharma, president, Forum for Organised Resource Conservation and Enhancement (FORCE), a Delhi-based NGO working on water related issues.

“Rain water harvesting is very feasible. In most cases it helps arrest the depletion of the water table,” said Mehrajuddin Ahmed, senior research associate, Centre for Science and Environment. Residential societies in south Delhi, including Vasant Kunj, and east Delhi are starting new projects.