BENGALURU : Despite stringent regulations and penalties in place for storing rainwater, the city continues to have drains overflowing onto roads after rain. The reason is that though most people have installed Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) units, they are not using it properly.
As per data given by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), 2,10,000 houses need to compulsorily install RWH. Of them, 1,55,200 have installed them, while the rest continue to pay the penalty for non-installation. In the city, two categories of houses must install RWH: 1) Houses on 60x40 sqft and above sites, built before 2014 and 2) Houses on 30x40 sqft and above sites, built after 2014.
BWSSB Chairman N Jayaram told TNIE, “We are doing our best to make people understand the value of utilising copious rainwater. We conduct checks wherever there are bulk connections and penalise them if RWH structures are not found. But a considerable number has them only for namesake. Instead of using the water for toilet, washing or other cleaning purposes, they release it into our underground network, flooding them completely.” The worst part is that this pure rainwater is again treated by BWSSB through its Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) adding to its electricity bills, he added.
Chief Engineer, Waste Water Management, BC Gangadhar said that this ruins their sewage network. “The drains are flooded due to the sudden discharge by hundreds of homes after a rainfall,” he said.
KN Rajiv, Additional Chief Engineer, Maintenance, said flash floods at Koramangala and Wilson Garden last month were because of this. “Core areas in the city like Avenue Road, Chickpet, KR Market, Shantinagar, Wilson Garden among others have small houses which have been exempted. Water here directly flows into our network as there is no storm water drain in these areas.”
The government is levying fine for non-installation of RWH structures which is 50 per cent of water bill for first three months for domestic purposes and 100 per cent for non-domestic use.