The Odisha Government plans to erect 12,000 rainwater harvesting structures (RWHSs) by July 10.
The Housing and Urban Development Department, which had launched a State-wide campaign on the theme “Catch the Rain: Where it Falls and When it Falls” across all the 114 urban local bodies (ULBs) of the State under MUKTA Programme is scaling up the activities.
The campaign was started on April 15 with an objective of constructing at least 5,000 RWHS to facilitate in-situ water conservation and groundwater recharge in 114 towns of Odisha before onset of the south-west monsoon.
However, the campaign has been taken up in a mission mode under the leadership of Principal Secretary of HUD G MathiVathanan to achieve the intended outcomes within the timeframe.
A community driven approach has been adopted for field execution and to make it a success at the ground. Involvement of Community Based Organisations (CBO) such as Mission Shakti groups has been accorded highest priority in the execution process by engaging them as implementing agency.
So far, the journey of campaign has been highly rewarding with overwhelming support from the ground. As a result, the Department has been able to achieve more than 10,000 RWHS constructed in the urban pockets of the State within a record time, i.e, span of two months.
All these 10,000 RWHS are of low-cost structures specially designed based on hydro-geological parameters prevailing in the State.
Looking at the success and acceptance by the urban community of the State, HUD Department has taken a decision to construct 10,000 more RWHS across potential ULBs located in western, northern and southern parts of Odisha.
Officials say that construction of RWHS in all the 2035 wards across 114 ULBs of the State has been planned. Around 15,000 sites have been selected so far, 14,600 plans and estimates amounting Rs 70 crore have been prepared and 14,000 work orders issued. As many as 7,698 Mission Shakti groups and SDA groups have been engaged as implementing agency in the drive.
Housing and Urban Development Minister Pratap Jena has congratulated the department for the achievement.