Parched Delhi needs rainwater's help By Chitrita Ganguly, Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, June 18 (IANS) If you live in Delhi, chances are you pray for running water every day and agonise over the poor quality of water from private suppliers just as frequently. But consider this: Delhi receives a normal rainfall of 611.8 mm during 27 rainy days every monsoon, as much as 193 million cubic metres (mcm) is wasted in surface runoffs! Isn't that reason enough to catch some rainwater, let it seep underground, thereby helping increasing the water level in the area, and then draw it for use? Also, the average Delhi resident pays three paise per litre of water that it gets from Delhi Jal Board (DJB). But as that is precious little, one has to invest in bore wells, tankers and the hidden costs spiral. That's another strong ground to invest in rainwater harvesting. "One just needs an engineer to design a structure and any skilled plumber can do the rest," says Sumita Dasgupta, coordinator of the Natural Resources Management Unit, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). Contrary to popular notions, water harvesting is not a big complex solution. "The entire effort will cost lesser if you already have a dried bore well. That can be used as the (water) recharge pit and need not be dug separately (to store rainwater)." Official figures state that the Delhi Jal Board supplies 600 million gallons of water every day. But only 40 percent of this is used for drinking. The rest of it, says Dasgupta, "goes literally down the drain". Most houses have flush tanks in the bathroom that hold 12-14 litres, and if the chain is pulled even 10 times a day that means 120 to 140 litres of water flushed out. Not many know this, but the Delhi Jal Board offers subsidies to those who want to invest in rainwater harvesting. It will pay 50 percent of the cost or Rs.50,000, whichever is lower. One just needs to get the design of a rainwater harvesting structure certified by a Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) engineer. The hitch is that only Resident Welfare Authorities can avail this offer, not individual homes. "The basic flaw in our water management system is that all our water trickles into the drains, mixes with sewage, gets partially treated and then flows into the rivers," Dasgupta says. The ideal thing would be for clean water to go back underground, replenishing groundwater levels. And that is what a rainwater harvesting structure does. Of course there is the typical mindset 'Why should I spend thousands for something that'll end up benefiting my neighbours?' That mentality, however, doesn't help in a city where the groundwater level is dipping dangerously -- in south Delhi, it fell by 10 metres last year, according to CGWA. Srinivasan, a CSE engineer, says: "People flock to our counselling sessions during peak summer but after September, their attention wanes only to resurface next summer." --Indo-Asian News Service ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
