As part of its drive to increase ground water recharging, Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) claimed to have equipped over 1 lakh properties in Indore with rainwater harvesting systems.
As many as 1,05,000 properties have been equipped with a rainwater harvesting system and are also geo-tagged under the initiative, IMC’s executive engineer Sunil Gupta said.
He said that this includes over 85,000 individual houses and apartment buildings which are equipped with rainwater harvesting systems. In addition to this, rainwater harvesting systems have been installed at around 4000 commercial properties in the city, claimed Gupta.
The civic body had in the starting of this year launched this drive to equip properties with rainwater harvesting systems, and conducted a series of awareness drives to encourage citizens to come forward and join hands with IMC towards conserving rainwater and preventing depletion of groundwater.
Civic body officials believe that rainwater harvesting is the only way to arrest the depleting ground water level, and said that rainwater harvesting system has been made compulsory for residential properties with a minimum of 1500 sq ft of rooftop area under Madhya Pradesh Bhumi Vikas Rules, 1984.
They added that a one time rebate of 6 per cent on property tax is also given to the building owner as an incentive for implementing rainwater harvesting systems.
“If a 1000 sq ft building installs a rooftop rainwater harvesting system, it conserves around 50,000 litres of rainwater that can be recharged to the ground every year,” officials said.