With Chandigarh, staring at a severe water crisis in near future, the UT Administration has chalked out an action plan to focus on strict implementation of installation of rain water harvesting system in the society complexes and other buildings, ensure tertiary water supply to small private houses besides taking other initiatives for water conservation.

After the directions of the Union Government to launch intensive water conservation measures, the Chandigarh Administration has decided to work on five critical areas including water conservation through check damns, ponds, trenches, installation of rooftop rainwater harvesting, ensure renovation of traditional and other water bodies, ensure borewell recharge structures, watershed development and intensive forestation drive.

Chandigarh is a part of the phase I of Centre’s Jal Shakti Abhiyan from July 1 to September 15.

Even as the rain water harvesting (RWH) system was made mandatory in Chandigarh in the plots of one Kanal or more in the year 2008, the UT Administration’s endeavor to promote this initiative for water conservation had failed to yield any positive results.

In absence of any mechanism to keep a check on defiance of the orders, the compliance rate of mandatory provision of RWH system remained poor in Chandigarh with only a handful of private building owners complying with it.

Manoj Parida, Advisor to the UT Administrator, who presided over a meeting on ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan’ on Monday, said, “We are working on making the rain water harvesting system mandatory in societies, other big buildings in Chandigarh. We are mulling to make it mandatory for plots of more than one Kanal now,” he said.

“Apart from this, we have proposed to supply untreated water (tertiary water) to private houses. Two pipelines including one with drinking water supply and another with tertiary water supply is being proposed for all the private houses here,” the Advisor said.

“The Administration is also preparing a list of abandoned tubewells in Chandigarh. We have planned to convert all these abandoned borewells into groundwater recharging wells,” he said.

The Advisor further said that the Jal Shakti Abhiyan will be collaborative effort between various departments like Municipal Corporation, Engineering Department, Forest Department among others.

“We will be launching a Jal Shakti Abhiyan to sensitize the public and ensure people participation in water conservation. Schools, colleges, RWAs and market associations will be roped in to take active part in various awareness programmes,” he added.