The Hindu : Hyderabad: Sunday, April 08, 2012.
Even as the harried city dwellers across the State contend with alarming fall in groundwater level, a response to RTI query has shown that much of the amount collected for Rainwater Harvesting Structures (RWHS) either remained unspent or diverted.
WALTA
RWHS was made mandatory in urban areas through the AP Water, Land and Trees Act 2002, (WALTA) after it was found to be an effective ground water recharging method.
Urban local bodies had been collecting charges from people for building these structures under Section 17 of WALTA while according building permissions and releasing new water supply connections.
But after a decade of WALTA, a civil society organisation, Forum for Good Governance (FGG), has found that even in places like Hyderabad, only a tiny proportion of the amount collected from people was spent on RWHS works while more and more colonies report drastic fall in ground water level and bore well failures with commensurate increase in dependence on water tankers.
“It is the best example of how urban authorities ignore simple solutions to typical urban problems and go in for big ambitious projects”, said M. Padmanabha Reddy, secretary of the FGG.
As a test case the Forum filed RTI application before the Deputy Commissioner of Kapra circle and received information that Rs. 8,42, 174 was collected towards construction of RWHS but it remained unspent.
Similar was the response from the Deputy Commissioner of Kukatpally, now a burgeoning town in itself.
The Forum found that the Hyderabad Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board had collected Rs. 20.65 crore as RWHS charges between May 2005 and February 2012 but spent only Rs. 88.13 lakhs which is less than five per cent.
‘RWHS best suited'
Elaborating on cost effectiveness of RWHS, Mr. Reddy points out that the 650 square km geographic area of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) receives an annual average rainfall of about 750 mm. This he claims is equal to 15.896 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) and if RWHS are constructed at every possible place, about one third of this rainfall accounting for 5 tmc ft , could be comfortably harvested.
In contrast, the estimated cost of the scheme to bring 10 tmc ft water from Godavari river to city is put at over Rs. 3,500 crore while the cost of getting 5 tmc ft from Krishna (third phase) at Rs. 1,670 crore, he said.
With no proper response from Municipal and Water Board authorities, the Forum is planning to knock the doors of the High Court pleading effective implementation of RWHS and WALTA.
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