To address the substantially decreasing ground water levels in the capital, the Municipal Corporation has made a bold move in regard to conserving water. As a way of enhancing the recharge of the ground waters in the city, the civic body has developed a program to develop rainwater harvesting pits in 10 sites. In this venture, a proposal of about 50 lakh is submitted to Central Water Disaster Management Authority in order to get this approved.
Each rainwater harvesting pit will cost around ₹5 lakh according to people working in the Municipal Corporation water department. These pits will gather the rain water and redirect the water directly into the ground so as to replenish an exhausted aquifer. Currently, the corporation is undertaking the exercise of finding the right places around the city where such structures can be constructed successfully.
The statistics published by the Municipal Corporation demonstrate the severity of the situation. The level of ground water in Raipur is decreasing at a very high rate, especially in places like Kachna, Saddu and Sejbahar where ground water has been discovered at a depth of between 800 and 1000 feet. This drastic reduction has caused the digging of deeper borewells and strain of the drinking water supply system of the city.
The corporation has already made such steps previously. A rainwater harvesting system has been established in the Daldal Seoni region covering an area of slightly over 62 acres. Indira Smriti Van has percolation tanks that have been built to capture the monsoon rainfall and infiltrate the soil. This system alone has the capacity to recharge more than 210 million litres of water as per experts estimates.
The leaders at the municipal level are of the opinion that systematic harvesting of rainwaters can be instrumental in averting water shortages in the future. Municipal Commissioner Vishwadeep said that the new pits will start as soon as the proposal is approved.
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