Concerned over the depletion of ground water in Greater Hyderabad, the municipal corporation has come up with a proposal to share half of the cost of rainwater harvesting pits with house-owners.
The GHMC will bear 50 per cent of the cost of rainwater harvesting structures being built by residents welfare associations, NGOs and engineering colleges. The corporation plans to build about 10,000 structures within its jurisdiction this year.
Address a press conference here on Wednesday, city mayor Mohammed Majid Hussain and municipal commissioner MT Krishna Babu said the decision was taken at the standing committee meeting.
Expressing concern over the depleting ground water level in the city, they said the ground water table had been going down year after year.
Hence the decision to take up construction of rainwater-harvesting structures on a war footing.
The commissioner said the GHMC decided to build about 10,000 structures this year and earmarked about `6 crore for it.
Already, it has constructed 2,571 structures in open spaces in its areas at a cost of `3.21 crore.
Now, to involve people in the programme, it has decided to bear 50 per cent of the cost of the rainwater- harvesting structures being built by residents’ welfare associations, NGOs and engineering colleges.
The corporation will bear half the cost even in the case of pits to be built by individual house-owners.
The GHMC gets a 30 per cent subsidy on the construction material and it will pass on the benefit to those who build rainwater harvesting structures.
The GHMC will provide technical assistance to people. The design of the structures to allow proper percolation of rain water into the ground would be prepared by the executive engineers concerned under the guidance of engineering colleges, Krishna Babu said.
The cost of a rainwater-harvesting structure ranges between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000. Since the GHMC is collecting about Rs 4 crore a year for construction of rainwater-harvesting structures it will not be difficult for it to sponsor.
“If more people come forward to build rainwater- harvesting structures, the GHMC is ready to spend up to Rs 10 crore”, he said.
As per GO No. 86. all houses constructed after 2007 and measuring more than 300 sqft have to compulsorily build rainwater- harvesting structures but with the depleting ground water level the GHMC decided to ask even the owners of houses measuring below 300 sft to build rainwater-harvesting structures, he said.
The commissioner said residents interested in building rainwater-harvesting structures can contact local GHMC deputy commissioners and executive engineers.
In the case of structures costing more than `50,000, the file has to be cleared by the commissioner. Proposals on rainwater-harvesting structures would be cleared within 15 days, Krishna Babu said.