Make rainwater harvesting attractive: HC to DJB

The Delhi High Court Wednesday directed the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to make rainwater harvesting "attractive" by giving wide publicity to its benefits including rebate in water tariff.

A division bench of Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva said: "Why aren't you taking out advertisements in newspapers? We feel wider publicity is needed for public awareness to enable community at large to participate in rainwater harvesting programmes."

The bench further said that the DJB needed to emphasize in their advertisements that it would provide technical and financial assistance to people interested in setting up such systems.

The court directed DJB to file its response indicating steps taken on advertising through newspapers, and other medium by next date of hearing April 22.

Previously, the DJB had informed the court that it had made it mandatory for property of 500 sq metres or more in the national capital to install provision for rainwater harvesting.

To encourage rainwater conservation, the DJB said it had adopted the method of awarding subsidy in the water bill to the consumers who have installed rainwater-harvesting system in their plots.

On non-compliance with the provision, "the tariff applicable on the consumer increases by 1.5 times", the DJB had said.

The bench was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate R.K. Kapoor seeking to make rainwater harvesting mandatory for both residential and commercial buildings here.