Delhi prepares to catch rain

Making Delhities water literate, successfully

Since then, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), who has been actively promoting this technique through its campaign and technical guidance, has been flooded with queries from people wanting to implement water harvesting.

Residents like, P Dhawan of South Extension and A Jaju of Kalkaji want to implement this technique in their residential societies. R Luthra, a contractor, has requested CSE to include his name in their list of recommended contractors. There are many individuals like MBBhatia, a retired engineer from the central public works department, who want to learn this technique. Indian Agricultural Research Institute wants CSE to make a presentation on rainwater harvesting for its students. Tagore school in Rajouri Garden requested CSE for information to prepare posters on rainwater harvesting. Even the central ground water board, the primary state agency for providing guidance on rainwater harvesting is getting queries.

It has been nearly two years, since different state authorities have passed a series of notifications to control groundwater abstraction and promote rainwater harvesting in Delhi. (see box: Delhi’s water laws) However, the rate of implementation has been poor, as people are clueless about these notifications. On this issue, the authorities conveniently lay the entire blame on the people. They claim that people have not shown any interest to learn about the technique. These criticisms seem completely baseless. As authorities have never made an attempt to create awareness among the people.