CREDAI to form panel to monitor rooftop water harvesting
| Date :17-Jun-2019 |
By Vikas Vaidya:
Taking cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who wrote a letter to all Village Chiefs in India appealing them to save water, CREDAI, Nagpur, biggest builders association, has decided to work extensively on rooftop water harvesting factor. In its meeting held on Saturday CREDAI has decided to form a committee that would monitor whether its members have installed rooftop water system on their buildings or not. Mahesh Sadhwani, President of Nagpur CREDAI, who himself have installed the system in his home, told ‘The Hitavada’, “In every meeting that we had with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis he insisted to have rooftop water harvesting so that we could have water in ample quantity.
This time we have decided to form a committee to monitor this factor on the buildings of our members. In our own survey we found that most of our members have installed the system but we want it to be done aggressively.” Town Planning Department of Maharashtra Government had brought the rule of rooftop water harvesting in 2009 which was implemented in 2011 for Nagpur Municipal Corporation. There is a rule according to which the rooftop water harvesting is mandatory to the buildings constructed on a plot admeasuring more than 300 meter. Now, CREDAI is contemplating to put this issue aggressively before the Government and request it to make it mandatory to all the buildings. Prashant Sarode, Past President of CREDAI pointed out, “In our meeting we have taken one more important decision according to which we will also push this issue with the builders who are not CREDAI members.
We have published posters for the awareness about rooftop water harvesting, which would be put on display on the buildings. Sarode said, “I personally feel that compulsion should not be made but except the houses being built for Economically Weaker Section (EWS), the rooftop water harvesting should be installed on every house. Secondly, mass awareness should be created about this issue with the involvement of Government. Prabhat Dhadiwal, of CPS Envirotech keeps moving in Nagpur with a mission of creating awareness about saving water. He has toured 15 to 20 wards this summer and expressed regret, even 99% people don’t know about rooftop water harvesting. “Government has made it compulsory, but enforcement is very important which is not being done. I read a report that warned, by 2030 only 40% potable water would remain in India.
We have to take steps now else we have to face the music. If we do water harvesting on a terrace of 1500 ft, we can save one lakh litre water that would fulfil the need of one family for seven months. If such water management is done then Government does not have to spend a single penny on any project.” “Places like Besa-Beltarodi are becoming dry, here even upto 800 metre deep we would not find a drop of water,” informed Dhadiwal. Dhadiwal has prepared a van costing Rs 7 lakh and he takes it to all the colonies, near garden there he tries to explain people the importance of rooftop water harvesting. He is ready to help people installing the rooftop water harvesting system.
Let’s harvest the ‘blessing’
By Vijay Phanshikar:
“We are grateful to God that we have been blessed by enough rainwater. We should make all efforts and arrangements to conserve this blessing (water)...” With these words, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has urged lakhs of village chiefs (Sarpanch) across India in a letter with a personal touch. “The rainy season is about to begin”, Mr. Modi reminds them, urging village communities to harvest every possible drop of rainwater in the next few months as the parched Earth would be absorbing every drop of the heavenly blessing.
In the past two-three months, ‘The Hitavada’ has insisted upon systematic efforts to harvest every possible drop of rainwater and let it into the soil. We continue making such an appeal not just to the authorities but also to the people in general to make arrangements to harvest rainwater. In the past 2-3 months, we have talked mostly to civic authorities trying to know what they have done and will be doing to harvest rainwater. Their answers conform to the norms they have set about rainwater-harvesting, and try to be as legally correct as possible. We realise, however, that the authorities are not fully awakened to the need of systematic rainwater-harvesting.
And if the authorities are slack, the people are far more lethargic about the issue than the officialdom. We also realise that as a community, we have never given a proper thought to conserving water as a whole. That is why we wash our cars with hundreds of liters of water, throw into the kitchen sink the drinking water stored just one day earlier, stand under showers and bathe for long minutes with water flowing all the time keep the tap flowing when we brush our teeth. In public toilets, we keep the tap open even after we have finished. This carelessness also reflects itself when it comes to harvesting rainwater. Countless thousands of our buildings -- homes, offices, schools, colleges -- have no arrangements for harvesting rainwater.
The authorities, too, have not made a determined and disciplined insistence upon harvesting of rainwater as a mandatory activity of not just a few individuals but of the entire community. It is against this background that ‘The Hitavada’ pushes its ongoing effort to promote rainwater-harvesting into the next gear. Even as we do this, we feel constrained to remind all that Rajasthan where rainfall is very low -- mostly in single-digit -- there has been no debilitating drought for hundreds of years. The reason simple: The Rajasthani communities have evolved a systematic culture to save and conserve every drop of water. Their lakes, their domestic wells and tanks, as well as their ways of using water are so well organised that the State does not run into a drought despite terribly scanty rainfall. Perhaps, we need to treat Rajasthan as a national role model.