DJB mulling doubling rainwater harvesting structures

To meet the growing water needs of the people of the national capital, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is planning to promote rain water harvesting among government agencies and individuals and may also double rainwater harvesting structures.
According to DJB, they have 143 fully functional rainwater harvesting structures. It has further proposed to install additional 178 rainwater harvesting structures.
The board has engaged two NGOs-- INTACH and FORCE-- to create public awareness and promote community participation to implement rainwater harvesting in South-West and South districts of Delhi.
"With an ever growing population, there is an increased burden on the available water resources. In such a scenario, rainwater harvesting needs to be adopted on a wide-scale to meet the growing water related needs of the citizens of Delhi," senior DJB official said.

The rainwater harvesting cell of DJB provides technical assistance to individuals and institutions to help them in implementation of the technique. This cell has a dedicated phone number-- 011-23558264.
DJB officials claim that they have written to government agencies like PWD, DDA and the three MCDs for preparing an action plan for utilising road side storm water drains, which are not vulnerable to carry waste water, for harvesting rain water runoff for the purpose of ground water recharge.

The board has also asked DDA and the three MCDs to ensure that large urban catchments like district parks are landscaped in such a way that rainwater runoff from the catchment gets accumulated in a created water body within the district parks.

Officials claims that rain harvesting helps in improving quality of ground water, reduction in soil erosion, minimisation of choking of storm water drains, flooding of roads, etc.
To conserve water, Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) department has been asked to carry out various measures which include, assessment of additional check dams, that are required to be constructed for utilisation of runoff from ridge areas.
The department will also ascertain the number of water bodies that can be used as recharge ponds and make an assessment on ground water recharge potential from such water bodies.
They will also examine feasibility of creating water bodies in the Yamuna Flood Plains for storing water and for recharging the ground water table.