Move may force builders to go green; but there are glitches, admits civic body

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) latest move of cutting down water supply to new buildings might have left several Mumbaiites into a tizzy, but rainwater harvesting can be the answer to the impending water crisis for builders and residents. In fact, many in realty business admit the move may force builders to adopt the green route.

In rainwater harvesting, the rainwater that falls on rooftops is collected and stored in tanks, trenches, borewells, etc. In 2002, the BMC had made it mandatory for the new buildings having a plot area of 1,000 square meters to have rainwater harvesting facility. By 2007, the same provision became mandatory to buildings having a plot area of 300 square meters and above.

By that notion, the civic officials state, all the new constructions should invariably have this facility. However, the BMC statistics reveal a very low figure. According to the records available at the civic body’s rainwater harvesting cell, till 2007 only 171 new buildings have adopted the facility.

The BMC maintains that both awareness campaigns and stricter rules have proved futile. “Since 2002 we have adopted a stricter rule in this regards. Any building proposal is cleared only when they have made facilities for this (rainwater harvesting) technique. Otherwise, the occupational certificate (OC) is not given to the builder,” said assistant engineer of BMC’s rainwater harvesting cell, Suprabha Marathe.

But the real problem, Marathe says, is that many builders have the facility only symbolically. “Sometimes builders have the plan on paper but they never implement it. There are three different entities when it comes to any building —builder, architects and residents. Though the onus lies on the builder to implement the facility, unfortunately occupants are of the law and never question the builder,” Marathe said.

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