CHENNAI: In a bid to ensure water security and recharge ground water, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) is set to incorporate the recommendations of a report on ‘Audit on Rainwater Harvesting System Implementation in Chennai Metropolitan Area’ in the development regulations of the Chennai Metropolitan Area through an amendment.
It is learnt that a high-level meeting chaired by the CMDA member-secretary was held on Friday and the meeting discussed incorporating the recommendations of the audit report submitted by Aaksh Ganga Trust.
Sources revealed that the recommendations by the consultant focused on doing away with recharge pits, which were earlier made mandatory in 2002-03 for every household under Annexure 19 of development regulations to conserve rainwater.
“The issue is that people are not following it properly and many times the filter gets clogged. Now the suggestion is to go in for recharge wells,” sources said. It is being suggested to do away with the recharge pits and go in for recharge wells which will have a diameter of three to six feet and can go up to a depth of 15 feet.
Recharge wells allow groundwater aquifers to be treated as massive storage tanks where in times of drought, water can be extracted.
The move comes as Chennai is totally dependent on ground water, as the reservoirs have nearly dried up. The overdependency on groundwater also poses a threat of saline water intrusion.