Taking initiative

The residents of Greater Kailash I (GK I) and Som Vihar in Delhi have recently inaugurated rainwater harvesting (RWH) projects. Delhi’s chief minister, Sheela Dixit was the chief guest. She assured the residents that "The government has enough funds to finance RWH projects, under the Bhagidari scheme."

It all started five years back, when failing to access ‘Canadian expertise’ for RWH, promised by a local MLA, Naveen Agarwal, a resident decided to take action, himself. After studying the hydro-geological aspects he prepared a plan, which was rejected by the residents. Unfazed, Agarwal went ahead and installed it at his own residence. After just one monsoon, the water table of his borewell went up by four meters, leaving many to reconsider.

Now, the GK resident welfare association (RWA) has constructed four recharge structures. These will collect rooftop runoff from 80 units and storm water. The project cost is about one lakh and one-third of it is contributed by the RWA. The rest of it was given by Coca Cola (corporate-citizenship program) under the Bhagidari scheme.

Ever since it was built, Som Vihar, is completely dependent on groundwater, which has gone down from eight m (1982) to 45 m (2002). As the state supply was negligible, the residents installed two tubewells to meet their daily water requirement.

Looking for alternatives, the residents decided to install RWH and catch 712 mm of rain annually – collecting about one crore litres of water from the roof and surface. CSE and Central Ground Water Board have designed seven recharge structures. When on the day of inauguration, for Som Vihar, Dixit promised to bear the implementation cost of Rs five lakh, Brig Kohli, a resident remarked, "This much the government should do, as within 15 years, we have paid almost seven and half crores, as property tax and are still paying Rs 30 per month to DJB for not supplying us water."