VMC to conduct awareness program on rainwater harvesting

VIJAYAWADA: The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has formed special teams to make people aware about the importance of rainwater harvesting (RWH) mechanism. According to the sources, these teams would conduct a special drive in the first week of August to inspect the RWH pits in buildings of the city.

As per the VMC officials, the localities in Vijayawada experienced water scarcity during the summer and had to depend on tankers to meet the residents’ daily requirements. V Prasanna Venkatesh, municipal commissioner, to tackle the situation, directed the town planning wing to make it a mandatory for the builders to include RWH pits and onsite waste treatment plant in their building plan in order to get occupancy certificates (OCs). 

The civic chief directed the officials to make a list of buildings that already have rainwater harvesting system and their present status. With around 2.05 lakh properties registered in the city, the officials expect that at least 60 per cent of them are equipped with RWH pits. 

During the special drive, officials will make the residents aware about the importance of RWH mechanism and will set a deadline for the property owners to set up an effective rainwater harvesting structure, added the official.

Prasanna Venkatesh said, “During my daily visit to various divisions in the city, I am personally inspecting buildings and apartments to check whether they are equipped with RWH mechanism or else remained non-functional. So far, I have noticed that a large number of the property owners are equipped with RWH mechanism of various types as per their building size, but are failing to maintain it in an effective manner.” Venkatesh further added that apart from creating awareness over RWH mechanism among the public, the civic body would also study the picture of water management followed by the residents and commercial establishments.