CITY SCHOOLS TOLD TO SUBMIT RAINWATER HARVESTING PLAN

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal has directed schools in Delhi to submit an action plan on how they are planning to install rainwater harvesting systems in their premises.

All government and private schools in the city will have to submit their action plan by Monday. They will also have to inform the Delhi Jal Board.

A bench headed by Justice Jawad Rahim had given schools five days in its June 15 order. The matter would be heard again on July 17.

The green panel had said the schools need to take immediate steps to set up rainwater harvesting systems as the monsoon season is likely to start soon.

The official date for the monsoon to arrive in Delhi is June 29. Met experts are however yet to say for certain when the monsoon rains will hit Delhi.

The tribunal had earlier directed schools to install rainwater harvesting systems in their premises within 10 days. In the event of failure, it had warned, each one would be saddled with a cost of ₹20,000.

The Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) and Delhi Jal Board (DJB) were directed to inspect the schools after a plea filed with the apex green body claimed that both private and government schools had failed to install systems to harvest rainwater in their premises.

Mahesh Chandra Saxena, who claimed to be associated with an NGO working in the field of groundwater conservation, had alleged that government departments, educational institutions and residential societies had either not installed rainwater harvesting systems or the systems were not functional where they have been installed.

Despite making the rainwater harvesting system mandatory by the ministry of urban development and poverty alleviation (Delhi Division) in 2001 for all new constructions with a plot size of more than 100sqm, the desired results could not be achieved because there is no system of penalising residents who don’t follow these notifications.

Delhi gets an average of 611 mm of rain in a year and even if part of it is tapped, some pressure will be off the DJB to supply water to a vast majority of parched Delhiites. The approximate cost of building a rainwater harvesting pit for a building above the area of 500 square metres is around ₹80,000 to ₹90,000

THE TRIBUNAL HAD EARLIER DIRECTED SCHOOLS TO INSTALL RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEMS IN THEIR PREMISES WITHIN 10 DAYS