A State Level Task Force headed by Principal Secretary Housing and Urban Development Department G Mathivathanan and a City Level Core Group headed by Commissioner/EO have been constituted to oversee execution of 5,000 rain water harvesting structures (RWHS) proposed to be created in the next two months’ time before the onset of monsoons in the 114 ULBs of the State. A capacity building programme was organised by the H and UD Department son April 23 to train engineers from all the ULBs, development authorities and planning authorities on low cost technological models.
Senior officers of H and UD Department sensitised the functionaries on the roadmap and discussed the step by step SOP on how the targets would be achieved within the stipulated timeline. The City Engineer, BMC,Bhubaneswar made a technical presentation to all the ULB functionaries on the models of RWHS already installed in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation.
The ULBs have been directed to immediately ensure issuance of work orders to Mission Shakti Group, sensitise them and start execution of work.
Dedicated PMU has been set up at Department level to monitor and facilitate all UWEI activities. Besides, the ULBs have also been provided with the required human resources to implement UWEI.
Principal Secretary Mathivathanan has directed that targets shall befixed ward-wise and engineer-wise and their performance shall bereviewed regularly by the State Level Task Force.
Addressing the participants, Mathivathanan impressed thatsustainable water management is the focus of the Department and themost important method of doing it will be commissioning of variousRWHS.
This will be helpful in reducing the runoff and flash floods apart from ensuring ground water recharge. This will help in stabilising the hydrological balance and ensure climate resilience of urban areas. He said, this is the first of a series of steps which has to beinitiated to put in place a comprehensive water conservation model inall the urban areas. He further advised the officials to ensuretransparency and community participation while executing the projects.
He has emphasised on achieving the target of a minimum of 5000 RWHS in the parks, play grounds, open spaces and vacant spaces inside the institutional premises.
Every ward in the smaller towns should have 5 to 10 RWHS and in the Corporations each ward should have 20 to 25RWHS. It was also said that the best performing ULBs and Engineers will also be awarded.