Delhi Jal Board in association with the Delhi Dialogue Commission organizes workshop on Rainwater harvesting
- Delhi Jal Board in association with the Delhi Dialogue Commission organizes workshop on Rainwater harvesting
- Workshop aimed at preparing an action plan to implement Rainwater Harvesting in Delhi
Delhi Jal Board in association with Delhi Dialogue Commission, Government of NCT of Delhi has organized workshop to firm up the policy document on “Rain Water Harvesting” on 8th October, 2015 at Delhi Secretariat. Hon’ble Chief Minister and Chairperson Delhi Jal Board inaugurated the Workshop. The Representatives from RWAs, NGOs, Consumer Organizations and Professional water organizations attended the workshop and appreciated the initiative.
The Workshop on Rain Water Harvesting reflected the commitment of the Govt. of NCT of Delhi and the Delhi Jal Board to deliberate upon and find solutions to facilitate Rain Water harvesting all over the NCT of Delhi. The focus of this workshop was to deliberate upon and discuss issues related to Rainwater Harvesting to ensure adoption of Rainwater Harvesting in all the areas of the city where the water table has gone down.
Sh. Arvind Kejriwal, Hon’ble Chief Minister, Delhi expressed his appreciation for the work done in Chennai and emphasized the urgent need for Rain Water Harvesting for Delhi to reduce the dependency on neighboring states for its water needs. He expressed confidence that the workshop will come up with a concrete workable policy document to implement rainwater harvesting in an effective way.
Sh. Kapil Mishra, Hon’ble Minister for Water and Chairperson Delhi Jal Board stressed on the need to implement Rainwater harvesting in an expedient manner to prevent water logging. Sh. Mishra also said, “DJB is also looking at wider publicity which is needed for public awareness to enable community at large to participate in rainwater harvesting programmes.”
Speaking on the occasion, Sh. Ashish Khetan, Vice Chairman, Delhi Dialogue Commission said that “The present regulation on Rainwater harvesting needs to be simplified and made easier for the citizens of Delhi to adopt.”
During the workshop, presentations were made by Dr. Sekhar Raghvan, Rain Centre Chennai, Dr. Vasanth Kumar and Sh.Viraj Tyagi, Delhi Dialogue Commission. Dr. Raghvan shared the success stories from his Chennai experience and Dr. Vasanth Kumar, Sh. Viraj Tyagi presented some initial recommendations to promote implementation of Rainwater Harvesting in Delhi.
It was decided at the workshop that, Rainwater harvesting requires a two-pronged approach at micro and macro level. A combination of government push by new regulation, rules, enforcement and pull created by volunteers/citizens through ‘JalSwaraj’ initiatives at local level can lead to physical and sustained changes. The JalSwaraj initiative can be orchestrated by an NGO or the local mohalla committees.