Deccan Herald          12.08.2013

BWSSB may crack the whip on RWH defaulters

The BWSSB has issued notices to over 5,000 residents for not installing rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems in their homes. Repeated requests and warnings on the mandatory installation of RWH systems in houses constructed on sites measuring 60 feet x 40 feet and above have largely gone unheeded.

The Board is now keen on going a step further by disconnecting water supply to these houses from Monday, if steps are not taken to instal RWH systems.

T Venkataraju, engineer-in-chief of BWSSB, said, “We are tired of extending the deadline as we have given them enough time. They are giving us only excuses for not installing the structures. Many residents say they do not have the financial means to instal the structures as their children are living abroad. Others say that the dimension of their houses is much less than 60X40 and that they do not come under the purview of the rule,” he said.

“We cannot just cut off the lines near the water meters as the residents are quite capable of re-connecting them. Moreover, digging up the road will create another mess for which the Board will be blamed,” Venkataraju said.

The BWSSB, through an amendment in 2009, made RWH compulsory for all those residing in houses measuring 60X40 and above and in houses proposed to be constructed on a 30X40 area. The Board identified over 55,000 such houses in the core areas of the City and 13,531 houses in the newly added BBMP areas. As per the Board’s records, till date over 46,500 houses have installed RWH structures and 21,900-odd identified houses are yet to install the structures.

The Board was pulled up by the High Court recently in a suo motu PIL, for not supplying clean drinking water to the residents affected by groundwater contamination.

The court has directed the Board to supply water to residents in and around Bannerghatta, Iblur and Varthur. But these areas do not come under BWSSB’s supply area. Following the PIL, BWSSB had again asked the ‘identified residents’ to instal RWH structures by August 3, 2013.