The members of the Pune Municipal Corporation, PMC, have been pondering whether to make the rain water harvesting RWH compulsory before borewells are dug in the city.

This proposal was first stated by Medha Kulkarni, Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, corporator. In this proposal it was stated that the borewater levels in the cit are going down at alarming rates but the citizens of the city are paying no heed to the issue and are still going with drilling newer borewells. This points out the need to improve the levels of the ground water by employing methods like RWH. This proposal would be considered seriously by the standing committee.

The proposal stated that the people responsible to bring the levels of the water underground down should also work on bringing them up.

There are more than 7.2 lakh registered properties while only 5,000 owners have installed RWH systems. The percentage of the people is too low to restore the levels of the water underground.

Experts have stressed on this isssue too. Since Pune has hillslopes and hilltops it can expect excellent rainfall but most of the water is merely flowing away without even properly seeping into the ground.

Rainwater harvesting can be done via a rooftop RWH system or surface RWH. Surface ground water harvesting is a slightly expensive procedure as special filters have to be installed to prevent contamination as opposed to simple filtration that is use in the rooftop methods. The procedure can cost between Rs 2,000 to Rs. 30,000 for an area of about 300 sq m.

(AW- Anil)