Ggn prepares for rainwater harvesting this monsoon

Reeling under extreme water crisis, the Gurugram civic authorities wants to utilise the opportunity of southwest monsoons to enhance the groundwater levels by applying the rainwater harvesting technique.

The executive engineers of Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) with the cooperation of the resident bodies have begun the process of de-silting rain water harvesting pits in several parts of the city like Palam Vihar, DLF Phase-1, DLF Phase-4, Sector 17, Sector 10 and South City.

Besides recharging the ground water levels, the MCG officials claimed that the challenge of water logging and drainage crisis will also be tackled alongside.

"The most challenging part is cleaning the debris covering the pits which have been left unattended for years," said officials.

With an aim to educate the residents about water conservation, a special campaign named (Jaljagruti) has been launched.

"Lack of proper water management has affected citizens. We now hope that through the initiative of water harvesting we will be able to improve the declining rate of groundwater levels. We will try to make most of the rain water harvesting pits functional before the monsoon hits," said SS Rohilla spokesperson MCG. The MCG is also engaging in talks with various multinational companies to develop water recharging pits.

It is estimated that over half of the residents get their water supply through groundwater extraction.

As there has been ban by the court to dig illegal bore wells, there are over 15,000 illegal bore wells in the city. In most of the areas, the ground water has fallen to levels of 50 metres.

The alarming decline in water levels in the city was also stated recently by the National Green Tribunal Chairman Swantanter Kumar.

Besides this, environmentalists also advocate for the treatment of sewage water as most of it flows into the Najafgarh drain and do not get properly replenished.