lack of space for reservoirs and Baoli in the national Capital has made Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s call to Delhiites to conserve rainwater a far-fetched dream. Delhi Jal Board (DJB), the nodal agency for supplying potable water in the city, is at its wits’ end due to lack of space for storage.
Every year during monsoon, the national Capital roads get submerged with rainwater leading to long traffic snarls. “We require space like Baoli or pond-like structure to store water,” said a DJB official, adding that this is not possible in Delhi.
However, we can make efforts to do rainwater harvesting to increase the ground-level water for the future use, said the official. “The implementation for rainwater harvesting is being done and process will start in the coming days.” Pits will be constructed in the parks, under the flyovers and other commercial, industrial and residential area for harvesting rainwater, said the officials.
When asked about the major issue of waterlogging, the official said: “For this, we need coordination between all the civic agencies to assist DJB. We are likely to send the concrete action plan from DJB and the three Municipal Corporations to the Chief Minister within couple of days.”
It may be noted that on Monday, The Pioneer had reported that a high-level meeting was held between the officials of all three civic agencies and DJB officials for preparing a blueprint to tackle the waterlogging issue, storage of rainwater and rainwater harvesting on the orders of the Chief Minister.