BENGALURU: To ensure water that saved through rain water harvesting (RWH) is put to good use, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board has been actively conducting inspections of houses across the city. In the process, it has found 713 violations of norms within a fortnight.
While households are being cautioned and asked to curtail wastage of water immediately, penalties will be imposed on violators in a month from now.
V Gangadhar, Chief Engineer (Maintenance) at BWSSB, said the saving of water in the aftermath of RWH being made compulsory will have an impact only if the water is utilised properly. “Instead of collecting it in their sump or using it to recharge borewells, a considerable percentage of households simply divert them into the underground drainage network. In the process, the drains across the city get choked and overflow while the water too gets wasted,” he explained.
Beginning November 5, the BWSSB staff across all its 31 sub-divisions in the City (newly added areas not included) were asked to conduct inspections in their area. “Our teams have found 713 violations with most of them being in Old Bengaluru areas like Chamrajpet, Basavanagudi and Jayanagar. The drive is an ongoing one and is set to cover all houses in the city,” he added.
Rain water harversting has been made compulsory since 2009 for houses with dimesion of over 30x40 sqft constructed before 2009 and for 60x40 sqft as well as 30x40 sqft houses built after that. “The penalty being levied presently for domestic consumers is 50% of the water bill for the first three months and 100% of the bill from the fourth month,” he said.
Out of the 9.85 lakh water connections in the city, only over 2 lakh units need to install RWH. “Nearly 80,000 households choose to pay the penalty rather than put in place facilities to save rainwater,” Gangadhar rued.
The Board has also sent a proposal to the government to double the penalty being levied on domestic and commercial establishments to ensure compliance with RWH norms. A separate private squad is also being set up to conduct surprise inspections at homes.