1K WATER HARVESTING UNITS SOON
In a bid to give a big fillip to rainwater harvesting programme in the state, the TS government is taking up construction of some 1,000 rainwater harvesting structures around Hyderabad city.
Municipal administration and urban development minister K.T. Rama Rao will formally launch the programme on February 1.
Municipal administration department principal secretary Arvind Kumar on Friday held a meeting with the officials of water board, GHMC, director of municipal administration, TS Industrial and Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) and ground water department and discussed the modalities for building rainwater structures.
The TSIIC will take up building 500 rainwater harvesting structures in the Industrial Area Local Authority (IALAS) while GHMC and water board will take up 250 each.
The director of municipal administration (DMA) has been asked to take up another 250 structures in all the seven Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).
In a press note, the municipal department said that principal secretary Arvind Kumar stressed the need to create awareness among people to promote water conservation and improve the groundwater for sustainable yields in bore wells.
He said that a uniform logo design should be formulated for all the harvesting structures to make it stand out. Structures should be identifiable by display boards and they maintained properly by proper fencing. He asked the officials to take up mapping and geo-tagging of all structures.
Mr Kumar said steps should be taken to reactivate defunct rainwater structures and also geo-tag those structures. All 3,000 community resource persons in GHMC and Swachh Sevaks would have to be involved to create awareness among the public.
Water board MD Dana Kishore suggested that builders, NGOs and academic institutions should be involved at all stages of the programme and highlight their significance to the public. Private bore wells and those selling water commercially will be identified and asked to set up rainwater harvesting equipment, principal secretary Kumar said.