City wakes up to RWH

BANGALORE:  After the deadline set by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) to install Rainwater Harvesting in all commercial structures measuring 40 x 60 ft and above were extended by the board and Urban Development Minister S Suresh Kumar till March 31, 2012, more than 35,904 households out of 55,000 buildings have responded positively.Only 1,119 buildings had installed Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) in November last year. However, December saw a mad rush with more than 3,596 installations in the month, as Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board  had earlier threatened to disconnect their water supply and sanitary services if the residents fail to comply with the directive.Ever since the deadline has been extended, only 1,740 residents have installed Rain Water Harvesting in the month of January. Kemparamaiah, Chairman of the Rain Water Harvesting Committee told Express, “The momentum is gradually picking up as the deadline in fast approaching”.Figures speak allAs per Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board  records, around 444 households have gone in for Rain Water Harvesting in the first ten days of February alone. Kemparamaiah added that the water inspectors and meter readers are doing an individual follow up on the households at their sub-divisions who have still not implemented Rain Water Harvesting.  A research was carried out by Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology on Rain Water Harvesting status till December. A R Shiva Kumar, Principal Investigator of RWH and scientist at Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology revealed that about 175 million litres of water can be stored in the RWH structures in 34,152 buildings installed with RWH till December 2011.Meanwhile, about 52 per cent of the buildings having Rain Water Harvesting are on 40 X 60 ft site and 38 per cent of the buildings with RWH are on bigger sites.  Only 10 per cent of the buildings with RWH are on smaller sites, Shiva Kumar added.