The Central Government will soon introduce a bill to make rain-water harvesting compulsory throughout the country. The bill is being fine tuned by the Ministry of Water Resources for its introduction in Parliament, said N.Vardraj, Regional Director, Central Ground Water Board, here on Friday.
Participating in a workshop on “Optimal utilisation of ground water resources by industry,” organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Southern Region, Dr.Vardraj said already rain water harvesting had been made compulsory in some States such as Tamil Nadu. The Government wanted to make RWH compulsory in all industries and big buildings throughout the country as it had good potential for conserving and recharging water resources. He appealed to industrial bodies such as Confederation of Indian Industry to sponsor community based RWHs for recharging water resources. He warned people against over-exploitation of ground water, especially near coastal areas.
S.Bhattacharya, Scientist, Central Ground Water Authority, said the Ministry of Water Resources was planning to introduce water credit similar to carbon credit to give incentive to those who conserve water. The Authority had formed a committee in coordination with the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), which would work on the water credit concept. The committee had already submitted its preliminary report to the Ministry. It had also received suggestions from experts about the concept.
Sekhar Raghavan, director, Rain Centre, wanted revival of all traditional methods of rain water harvesting and people should learn to live with minimum use of water.
Chandu Nair, president and director, Scope e-knowledge, said there was need for an integrated management to sustain ground water.
