Chennai: Even as the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has made rainwater harvesting system (RWHS) mandatory, most commercial buildings, flats and individual houses in the city have failed to follow the guidelines.
Officials claim that they are trying to make this system mandatory, but rainwater goes waste during the rainy season. Activists urge government to disseminate awareness among people and issue warning notices to owners of buildings and houses, which do not conform to the rules.
S. Janakarajan, former professor of the Madras Institute of Development Studies, and president of South Asia Consortium for Interdisiciplinary Water Resources Studies, Hyderabad, says, “Even government offices like Ezhilagam do not have proper RWHS.”
However, officials of the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB), who are monitoring the system, maintain that they are continuously monitoring buildings and warn owners of buildings, who fail to implement the system.
“Fines can also be imposed on those owners of buildings which have no RWHS and there is a good awareness on RWHS among people,” said an official of the CMWSSB.
