‘Zoning of roof-top water harvesting is needed before compulsion’
| Date :21-May-2019 |
By Kaushik Bhattacharya:
Zoning will help to identify places where the ground water level is depleting and the compulsion should be made in such area instead of the whole city
On one side where weather department dubs the upcoming monsoon a delayed and deficit for the city, on the other side water conservation has been the talk of the town. To reduce the future water stress, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) put compulsion of roof-top water harvesting for every new building in the city. However, few engineering experts believe that NMC have to do proper planning before implement this for the city. “Roof-top water harvesting is need of the hour but NMC have to do zoning of roof-top water harvesting first,” said Sandeep Shirkhedkar, a Government Consultant and Director of imaGIS Engineering Solutions Pvt Ltd to The Hitavada.
Shirkhedkar who is working on varipus projects of Maharashtra Government as consultant talked about the need of zoning of water harvesting in the city. “The ground water level of the city varies from place to place. Dharampeth and Ramdaspeth area have good water level while places like Manewada, Indora and Pardi are in worst situation. Hence, the roof-top water harvesting is needed in Manewada and Pardi areas more than Dharampeth,” said Shirkhedkar.
“Zoning of water harvesting is needed to identify places where the ground water level is depleting and the compulsion should be made in such area instead of the whole city,” he added. In the urban areas, there is very little recharge to the sub-surface since most of the surface is either occupied by buildings or roads. Therefore, even if a part of the rainwater can be harvested, this may recharge the depleting ground water level and significantly contribute to the net availability of water for drinking and other purposes in the urban areas.
Roof-top water harvesting is the technique through which rain water is captured from the roof catchment and stored in reservoirs or ground water. “Roof-top water harvesting system is the best way to recharge the ground water level but proper planning and research is needed to implement the project in the city where the annual rainfall is 1092 mm,” said Shirkhedkar.