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Journalism of Courage
Following the directions of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the Public Works Department (PWD) has begun work to construct rainwater harvesting pits across the city to conserve water and improve groundwater levels to meet the capital’s demands.
According to officials, the department has floated tenders for its construction at Aurobindo Marg road and various other locations including South West, South East, North East, North West and other districts.
“In South West Delhi, the department is planning to construct around 12 rainwater harvesting pits. In other districts, as many pits or more will be developed, and more than 1,500 new rainwater harvesting pits will be developed in total by different road owning and civic agencies,” said a senior PWD official.
Currently, Delhi has around 927 rainwater harvesting pits which store millions of gallons of rainwater. Speaking at the meeting conducted last month with officials from departments concerned, the Deputy CM, who also holds the portfolio of PWD, had said that the aim behind creating 1,548 new pits is to increase water supply to make Delhi self-reliant in its water needs.
Delhi faces water scarcity every summer and has been at loggerheads with Haryana over the amount of water it releases. The Delhi government met experts from Denmark to discuss the harvesting system and also has plans to adopt various models of the Danish government to improve water supply in the capital.
Meanwhile, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), which has under its jurisdiction the New Delhi and Lutyens’ Delhi areas, is also developing modular rainwater harvesting pits in its area apart from conventional pits.
NDMC vice-chairman Satish Upadhyay said these pits are cost-effective, take a shorter time to install and require less maintenance.
The NDMC’s road division has developed 160 modular pits and has been working on 95 more such pits at different locations in New Delhi. The work order is expected to be awarded by the end of July and the pits are expected to be ready by March 2023. Upadhyay, however, said that the locations for the construction of 95 rainwater harvesting pits are yet to be finalised with the consent of the Central Groundwater Board.
How rainwater harvesting pits work
Rainwater harvesting is a technique for collecting and storing rainwater into natural reservoirs or tanks or the infiltration of surface water into the subsurface levels. These pits are soaked pits and during the monsoon, rainwater is collected through these pits. After that, water enters the ground level and replenishes the water table. This method of water conservation helps to save the sinking or depleting groundwater level.
