Lets hit the roof!

bangalore: it's called the opm principle. the art of how to spend "other people's money." now that the chief minister has received the 100 crore drought relief from our bade baaps at the centre, i would like to offer some advice regarding how it should be spent; some of it at least. i think the cm should immediately launch out on a massive drive that will teach every citizen of bangalore how to hijack every drop of rain water that he or she can.that, i see as the crucial need of this city right now: rain-water harvesting. in fact, delhi had got into the act ages ago, when the union government informed the delhi high court that it planned to amend the building bye-laws in the capital to facilitate water harvesting on roof tops with a view to improve the ground water table. i think we should forget about the size of roofs and stuff like that. big, small, the ones in-between, our government should make it mandatory for every house and building to have water harvesting provision to collect rain water on roof tops which can then be channelized under the soil through pumps. even houses with roofs under 300 square yards should be included so that the miserable water table of bangalore will not be further pierced and persecuted because of over-exploitation. sounds simple enough, doesn't it? rain falls; citizens allow it to get stored up on the roof tops, and then use it through the cyclical process. but, as always, we must complicate matters. instead of educating each citizen about the how and where of the strategy, the government has been busy asking bodies like the agricultural finance corporation and others like it to prepare project reports that would show them how to develop blueprints for rain-water harvesting, so that they could then approach the world bank for financial assistance. the financial need specified is around 1,000 crores. is that really needed? when we have non-profit organizations like environment and health foundation (ehf); this body has specialized in water management in general and rain-water harvesting in particular. in fact, this coorg-inspired organisation was the first non government body to focus attention on rain-water harvesting when it conducted a seminar on rain-water harvesting as far back as november 1999. if you are intrigued by the idea of hijacking every drop of rain that visits your roof, so that you never have to dial the corporation ever again to ask when they plan to release water to your area, then closer home you have a club that could help you into the know-how right away. it's called the rainwater club. the telephone numbers are 8381690/8382435.