Defunct rainwater harvesting facilities at Indira Gandhi Park and (above) at the secretariat. Pictures by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 26: More than 15,000 buildings in the capital have flouted the norm to adopt rainwater harvesting.

Four years ago, Bhubaneswar Development Authority had made it mandatory to implement rainwater harvesting in each building covering an area of more than 300sqmt.

The buildings, especially the government ones that have installed the facilities to store rainwater, are not able to collect it because the structures are lying defunct. The facility installed at the state secretariat and a similar structure set up at Indira Gandhi Park are examples of the authorities’ callousness to adopt the system.

The regulation clearly mentions that the dimension of water-recharging pits or trenches should be at least six cubic meters for every 100sqmt of roof area. It also stipulates that percolation pits are needed to be filled up with small pebbles, brick jelly or river sand and then these ought to be covered with perforated concrete slabs for collecting rainwater.

At present, the ground water level is not a major concern for the city. But, environmentalists said rapid urbanisation would put a pressure on it in the near future.

“Urbanisation has minimised the open land area with concrete structures lessening the percolation of rainwater into the ground. In 10 years, concrete structures are likely to occupy 50 per cent of the total land in the city,” said Bijay Mishra, an environmentalist. He stressed on swift action to implement rainwater harvesting in the city.

Sources in the Public Health Engineering Organisation said misuse of water in the city had also added to the problem. The city requires 250 million litres per day (MLD) pipe water supply, including 200 MLD from surface source and 50 MLD from the ground.

“While 130 MLD should suffice for the city, 250 MLD are falling short because of large-scale wastage. The supply is 250 litre per capita per day for more than eight lakh people in the city,” said a senior official of the organisation.

Urban management practitioners in the city, too, feel that lack of mechanism to enforce the law has been a problem in implementing the system.

“Having a regulation alone is not going to help. There must be proper enforcement,” said Piyush Ranjan Rout, an urban management practitioner. Rout also said that with apartment culture gaining popularity, a large number of city residents fail to realise the gravity of water problem.

However, sources said though a mechanism was there to enforce the law strictly, lack of interest remained a major hindrance. “Cost effectiveness and lack of public awareness are responsible for poor response towards rainwater harvesting,” said planning member of the development authority P.K. Pattanaik.

Sources said an average rainwater harvesting structure cost around Rs 10,000.