Govt to harvest rainwater on rooftops of PMAY buildings

The Centre is working on an ambitious plan to turn rooftops of all public buildings, schools and houses built under its flagship affordable housing scheme, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), into structures to harvest rainwater, according to officials aware of the development. The Union rural development ministry issued a circular this month saying necessary infrastructure to harvest rainwater can also be built using funds under the government’s flagship rural job guarantee scheme — Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

In a letter to the states, the ministry underlined that over 400,000 sq meter space would be available to harvest rain water when over 15 million houses under PMAY are complete by 2022. The government has set itself the target of building 15.5 million houses under the scheme over the next three year to ensure that every poor person in rural areas has a house by the time the country celebrates 75 years of Independence. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June called addressing water scarcity in the country one of the key areas of focus for his government.

He cited the formation of the Jal Shakti ministry and said it underlined how his government took the issue of water shortage seriously. India, which is home to 17% of the world’s population but has only 4% of its freshwater resources, will be extremely susceptible to water scarcity by 2050, according to the 2018-19 Economic Survey. HTC