RWH: Metro Water to deploy ‘water volunteers’

The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metro Water) has appointed self-help group women as ‘water volunteers’ to create awareness about rainwater harvesting in the city.

In an event to inaugurate rainwater harvesting and water safety awareness week, Chief Minister MK Stalin launched teams of ‘water volunteers’ at zonal level, on Monday.

“Teams of ‘water volunteers’ will work in each of the 15 zones and they will visit households to distribute awareness bills. They will interact with public to sensitise them on rainwater harvesting,” said a statement from the government.

Also, two helpdesks have been set up at each of the 200 Metro Water depots to create awareness about rainwater harvesting and provide details to the public. Each of these 400 helpdesks would have five women SHG members, 2,000 in all, who would also visit 35,000 streets in the city to interact with the families.

“Apart from creating awareness, the volunteers will also provide technical details about rainwater harvesting structures based on the type of building, water and sewage connections. They will also collect details about total dissolved solids in groundwater,” the statement added.

It may be recalled that the Metro Water had conducted a meeting and decided to resume the drive to increase the number of rainwater harvesting in houses. During the meeting, a decision was taken to inspect all the buildings to check the conditions of existing rainwater harvesting structures.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the city, Chennai Corporation and Metro Water were conducting the rainwater harvesting drive.