The Hindu : Rules in place for water conservation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 28, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Rules in place for water conservation

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MARCH 27. The bitter lessons of the current spell of drought in the State have prompted the Government to make water-harvesting mandatory for new buildings and introduce stipulations to check misuse of groundwater resources.

An official press release today said the rules pertaining to construction of buildings in towns and cities had been amended to ensure that all new buildings had water-harvesting facilities.

Two methods are being stipulated. The first is to have the rainwater from the rooftop filtered and collected in tanks for future use and the second is to direct the rooftop water to pits so as to replenish the groundwater table.

All constructions having a floor area of more than 100 square metres, situated in plots with more than 200 square metres, should have both the facilities.

For a house having a floor area of up to 75 square metres, built in seven cents of land, need have only the groundwater replenishing mechanism. The same is the case with a house with a floor area of 150 square metres, built in three cents of land. (`Floor area' means the total area of the floor in all the stories of the building, if it is a multi-storied construction.)

For a house with a floor area of 100 square metres, built in five cents of land, the facilities for both collecting the rooftop water in tanks and replenishing the groundwater table are compulsory. Schools, shop buildings, lodges, hotels, wedding auditoriums and vehicle service stations too should have both the facilities.

The new rules further stipulate the capacity of the tank in which rooftop water is to be collected.

This is on the basis of the floor area of the building concerned. For instance, a school building with a floor area of 1,500 square metres should have tanks having a total capacity of 75,000 litres to store the rooftop water.

These aspects have to be incorporated in the building plan when a builder submits his application to the municipality or corporation for the requisite permit to start construction.

The municipality or corporation will issue licence to the building only if these facilities are also in place when the construction is completed. And a licensed building supervisor, engineer or architect has to certify to that effect.

As per the new stipulations to check misuse of groundwater resources, the Groundwater Authority would identify and notify areas that are vulnerable to groundwater depletion. In such areas, special permits of the Groundwater authority are required to dig new wells or install mechanical devises like motors to pump water from existing wells.

Applications for the permits have to be submitted in specified forms. An individual applicant has to remit Rs. 50 and an industrial/commercial applicant Rs. 1,000 as fee for the permit.

Within 120 days of the notification of an area as `vulnerable', all individuals having wells and industrial/commercial establishments using groundwater in the area have to register their facilities with the Groundwater Authority.

Special permit of the Groundwater Authority is needed for digging a new well within a radius of 30 metres from a place from where water is being pumped for public use. The application for this is Rs. 500 in the case of individuals and Rs. 5,000 in the case of industrial/commercial establishments.

The Groundwater Authority has to take a decision on each application within 90 days of its receipt after the requisite study and survey and after giving an opportunity to the applicant to be heard.

If a decision is not forthcoming within 90 days, the applicant is free to consider the permit granted.

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