PRAYAGRAJ: The groundwater department is conducting educational and awareness camps to make rural people aware about recharge of groundwater level.
As part of the campaign, they are urging villages to focus on the creation of new ponds to collect rainwater in trans Ganga and trans Yamuna pockets of the district.
Although the work of digging ponds is being done in the district under MGNREGA, officials have consulted the agencies concerned and villagers to focus on the collection of rainwater. Hydrologist at groundwater department, Archana Singh told TOI that the department is undertaking a series of campaigns to create awareness in rural areas to focus on the collection of rainwater in ponds.
In urban areas, focus has also been laid for the installation of rooftop rainwater harvesting systems.
Experts, however, said that a 100 sq mt structure can recharge around 80,000 liters of water in a year.
For that, prominent government and private buildings must have water harvesting systems in urban and semi urban pockets of the district. The authorities of the groundwater department are currently carrying out a survey to find out the exact number of buildings with rainwater harvesting systems.
Harvested rainwater can be stored in sub-surface groundwater reservoirs by adopting artificial recharge techniques to meet household needs through storage in tanks.
“The necessity for rooftop rain water harvesting has been felt to meet the demand for water and to reduce the run-off which chokes storm drains. It also helps in reducing groundwater pollution and in improving its quality. Rainwater also improves the quality of ground water through dilution when recharged and the system is not expensive,” said experts.
Ironically, the officials of Prayagraj Development Authority (PDA) have no idea about the buildings in the city having the facility of rooftop rainwater harvesting systems.
While the entire city areas have been put under dark zone (over exploited) three blocks in the district, Bhagwatpur, Chaka and Baharia, have also been placed in the critical category.
Moreover, eight other blocks, including Bahadurpur, Dhanupur, Holagarh, Mauaima, Pratappur, Sahson, Saidabad and Shringverpur, have been placed under semi-critical category while blocks like Kaudhiyara, Kaurihar, Koraon, Manda, Meja, Handia, Jasra, Phulpur, Karchhana, Shankargarh and Soraon are in safe zones.
