Every drop of water precious

Rajkot: Water conservation, finding new sources of water, and reducing dependency on Narmada supply is are the major thrust areas in the civic budget of Rs 2,817 crore for financial 2024-25 proposed by the municipal commissioner on Wednesday.Considering the perennial water scarcity, rapid residential and commercial development of new areas, and depleting water sources, the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) has decided to set up a dedicated ‘water accumulation cell’ that will discover new sources, work for water conservation with active participation of citizens.Municipal commissioner Anand Patel said this cell will appoint a consultant and prepare a pre-feasibility report to survey the peripheral areas of Rajkot to find new sources of water.The city with a population of 18 lakh gets 135 million litres per day (MLD) of Narmada water while RMC distributes 250 MLD from Aji-!, Nyari-1, and Bhadar-1 dams.The RMC has also proposed a scheme to encourage citizens for groundwater recharging. Under this scheme, if any residential society, industrial unit, or social and religious organization, undertakes a project of water conservation or revives similar old projects, the civic body will bear 90% of the project up to Rs 10 lakh. A provision of Rs two crore has been made in the budget.It has also proposed collecting water recharge deposits at the time of issuing BU permission for new buildings. “The GDRC states that new buildings should have rainwater harvesting systems. We have decided to collect this deposit to ensure the rule is followed,” Patel said.The deposit will be calculated based on the carpet area and 50% of the money will be refunded after a year if the system is functional, and the remaining 50% two years later after examining the status of the system. The deposit will be forfeited if the new buildings don’t execute water recharge systems. RMC has targeted Rs 9.224 crore in water recharge deposits in 2024-25.RMC has also proposed collecting greywater deposits from the hospitality industry because as per the GDRC hotels, clubs, and other such facilities are required to install a treatment plant to reuse greywater. Greywater is wastewater generated from bathing, washing, showers, washbasins etc. It has proposed collecting Rs 50,000 from the 5,000 to 10,000 sq built-up facility and Rs one lakh from the facilities of more than 10,000 sq m area in the upcoming projects. Half of this amount will be refunded if the system is functional after a year and the rest after two years. If the system is not functional, this deposit will be forfeited.

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