Dr Prakash Agrawal, who has written to both Central and State governments, to promote drain water harvesting.

Drain water harvesting is need of the hour as the drain water is available throughout the year and also most of the discharge coming from our homes is not waste. In Bhopal itself, plants in many gardens are watered through drain water harvesting technique, which is a traditional way to use the drain water instead of discharging and wasting it.The water coming from the slums, near the Mantralaya, is used to water the plants in Rose Garden, Chinar Park and those located near the Mantralaya premises.

 

A physiotherapist in state capital has tried to draw the attention of state government towards this initiative to consume the water through Drain Water Harvesting. Dr Prakash Agrawal, a man concerned for water conservation, says our country is not deficit in water instead the water scarcity is because of our negligence and poor monitoring of water resources. Agrawal has written to Prime Minister Office, has sought various details of Jal Shakti Mission using Right to Information Act, 2005 but was always redirected to some other ministry office for further procedure.

 

 

 

Agrawal has been moving from pillar to post to give his advice to the officials concerned on the burning issue of water conservation. He believes that it is through simple and cost-efficient steps that the government can save water from getting wasted and also through this the ground water level will remain maintained. Though Dr Agrawal lauds the practice of Bhopal Municipal Corporation of separating the wet waste from dry waste but he also believes that it would be good if grey-water is separated from black-water. He also said, traditionally houses had separate drainage system, one was for the discharge of faecal waste while the other was for the rest of water drainage including that from kitchen and bathroom.

 

It may be mentioned that Traditionally, this waste coming from kitchen and bathroom was either dumped to a soak-pit, near the house, to maintain the ground water level or was used to water the nearby plants. Dr Agrawal considers that this method cannot be used fully but advices that a part of it is useful. He said that he had requested to the Bhopal Municipal Corporation officials as well as to those of the district administration to implement this system, in a bid to save the drain water.

 

In a complaint written by Dr Agrawal to the PMO, he states many treatment plants have been made in cities but the filtered water, when discharged in a water body invites many diseases and also affects the aquatic life. We are not doing our bit to maintain the ground water level and the concrete construction also stops the rainwater from entering the ground, he says.

 

In his advice he says the water coming from the kitchen should not be mixed with the sewage water and instead should be used to water the nearby gardens or could also be stored in a soak-pit. If the base of the drains is kept concrete-free, then it would maintain the ground water level and will also save construction cost worth lakhs.