4 years on, rainwater harvesting project moves step ahead

LUDHIANA: The rainwater harvesting (RWH) project at the district courts complex witnessed some development after four years as senior research engineer from Punjab Agricultural University’s department of soil and water engineering Dr Rajan Aggarwal inspected the site.
Aggarwal was the principal investigator in an all India coordinated research project on groundwater utilization scheme.After inspecting the courts complex, he proposed three structures for RWH, on Wednesday.
“I have asked the office bearers of the District Bar Association (DBA) to provide a complete plan and dimensions of the roof top area, which is very important for making a functional plan for the project. A lot of other work, like connecting the drains with channels and cleaning up the channels, is to be done. Once it begins, the project would be finished within two months,” said Aggarwal.
He said if the work goes uninterrupted, the courts complex will be able to add to the groundwater by next season, “But this requires dedicated efforts from the DBA office”.
DBA secretary advocate Gurvinder Sodhi said the association is prepared to contribute to conservation of water. “We will provide the required plans and dimensions at the earliest. All the advocates are excited about the project and want it to complete soon as it would make Ludhiana courts complex one of the first court complexes in north India to have such a provision,” said Sodhi. Another advocate Sarabjeet Singh, who resides at the officer’s hostel near Sadar police station, has even written a poem about conserving ground water in Punjabi that reads:
“Kukh wich dhee, dharti wich pane je na sambhia, te samjho khel khatam”, and when translated to English, it is, “Daughter in mother’s womb, water in mother earth, if not saved, would lead us to doom.”