VIJAYAWADA: If the plans of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) materialise, the central median strips on major roads of the city will soon turn into rainwater harvesting (RWH) pits.
Realising the importance of water conservation, the VMC is proposing to develop Rain Gardens on the median strips, VMC commissioner V Prasanna Venkatesh said on Saturday.
Recently, TNIE had reported in these columns about the lack of proper RWH mechanism in the city and also the failure of the civic body officials in enforcing the existing rules of RWH on the apartment owners.
Speaking to TNIE on Saturday, Venkatesh said the city spread across 59.69 sq km radius and had a total road length of 1,264.24 km, of which 1,230 km was maintained by the VMC and 22.74 km by the R&B.
At present, the civic body has been maintaining the greenery on the median strips of Mahatma Gandhi Road, Karl Marx Road and other important roads across the city.
Explaining the ‘Rain Garden’ concept, he said the purpose behind the concept is to improve the water table and ensure that rainwater is available for plants. Venkatesh said that as part of the concept, medians will be filled with soil on both sides and structures made out of stones, sand and water-filtering materials will be deposited in the central portion. With this, whenever it rains, the water will be stored inside the median and not drain out.
During the process, the water will seep inside the median through the soil which is in accord with the rainwater harvesting mechanism, he said. “When the water flows in between the stones it will get filtered to give pure water, a method generally opted under RWH (stone-sand-stone filtering). Saplings will be planted on both the sides of the median and the central part will be left open as the provision of flowing of excess rainwater and make it appear natural,” the municipal commissioner said.
Upon asked whether the civic body had identified any particular roads to materialise this concept, he maintained that officials concerned have been directed to conduct a study across the city and identify suitable central medians for the purpose. In the next phase, budget estimates will be prepared.
Commenting on the lack of RWH maintenance by the public at their places, the municipal commissioner said that instructions were given to the town planning department officials only to issue occupancy certificates (OCs) to the public who have made provisions for maintaining RWH and on-site composting units in their building plans.