The Sitamarhi district administration, in collaboration with Unicef, would create 2,100 soak pits in government schools on April 21 to reduce groundwater depletion.

Soak pit is covered, porous wall chamber that allows water to be slowly soaked by the ground.

As per the plan, soak pits will be constructed near the hand pumps of the school so that the used water accumulated near them could be routed back to the earth for recharging the groundwater level.

Sitamarhi additional district magistrate Harishankar Ram said the initiative was also aimed at addressing various diseases, which occur because of wastewater accumulation over the ground.

"This is just one measure to recharge groundwater level in the district. Increasing population and over-exploitation of groundwater for agriculture and drinking water can result into abnormal depletion in the groundwater level. On April 21, soak pits would be constructed in schools; later, we would get it constructed in police stations and block development offices as well. Each of the soak pit would be built at a cost of Rs 2,500-3,000 from the development fund of the schools concerned. The private schools are getting soak pits constructed from their own fund," said Ram.

Sub-divisional officer (sadar) Sanjay Krishnan said: "Though the administration had kept the target of creating 2,100 soak pits on the day but the number of soak pits may increase because the campaign was receiving a huge public support."

Experts also hailed the initiative. Ashok Ghosh, member, state-level expert appraisal committee, a technical committee of the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority, said: "The present situation of groundwater depletion has occurred because of its over-exploitation. If we don't take measures of recharging the groundwater, the situation would turn worse."

The Sitamarhi district administration is also making an attempt to register its name in Guinness World Records with the construction of soak pits in such a huge level on a single day.