The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Rainwater harvesting yet to yield benefits

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 09, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Rainwater harvesting yet to yield benefits

Shyama Rajagopal

Not many are setting them up or operating them effectively

KOCHI: While the Kerala Municipal Building Rules have made rainwater-harvesting systems mandatory in buildings coming up on more than 100 square metres of land, not many are setting them up or operating them effectively.

Admitting that many scuttle the rules, a town-planning official in the City Corporation said that rainwater harvesting was depicted in all the building plans sanctioned by the civic body. However, it was implemented only till the inspection was over to get completion certificates.

There is doubt over proper utilisation of the systems, as they need to be operated scientifically and systematically. The Corporation official said that in flats, there was a combined effort to keep the systems working, while in houses, these seldom worked properly. "We can say that about 50 per cent of the people have developed a good system, while the other half have not," he said.

A municipal official said that utilisation of the system was only 30 to 40 per cent, though people had it on the plan. "I found the system being more utilised in rural areas," he said. In one of the panchayats, he said, people could easily tide over one or two months of water scarcity in the dry season with the harvested rainwater.

The city dwellers were yet to make it part of their lifestyle. "It is probably because of nuclear families and little time to devote to such needs," he added.

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