Water Board Mandates Rainwater Harvesting Structures
According to the survey, in 42,000 properties where tankers were delivered, more than half of them did not have RWHS and the remaining did not maintain them.
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) will initiate action against owners of houses/structures that do not have a rainwater harvesting structures (RWHS) measuring 300 square yards or more.
The HMWS&SB has also appealed to people to build RWHS even if the structure is built on 200 square yards. RWHS pits are required in every household having a plot area of above 200 square yards and it is mandatory to construct RWHS in every premise above 300 square yards, said HMWS&SB in a statement.
They also mentioned that, on the instructions of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, in the next three months, special teams will check if RWHS are in place. As part of this, notices will be served to 16,000 people to build RHWS and a 90-day special campaign will be launched to create awareness. “RWHS should be constructed in houses which are built on 200 yards of land or above in Outer Ring Road (ORR) jurisdiction,” said HMWS&SB managing director K. Ashok Reddy.
This year, due to the lack of rains, groundwater levels have depleted in many areas and demand for water tankers is gradually increasing to some extent every year, according to HMWS&SB.
In summer, 11,000 tankers were supplied in 24 hours and presently there is a demand of 8,500 during the same duration. In 2024, from July 1 to 14 while the number of tankers booked were 63,724, this year it has increased to 86,520. To address the root cause, the HMWS&SB did a survey in areas where water tankers were booked the most previous year and found out that people were dependent on tankers as their borewells dried up.
According to the survey, in 42,000 properties where tankers were delivered, more than half of them did not have RWHS and the remaining did not maintain them. Following this, the HMWS&SB citing monsoon as the best season to conserve water, has taken up the task to make sure RHWS are in place.
The HMWS&SB with the help of NGOs, has already built 12,000 RHWS and now the plan is to ensure 16,000 more are built.