BBMP lets its water harvesting unit sink

Just a year ago, the BBMP spent lakhs of rupees to construct a rainwater harvesting (RWH) sump at the premises of its head office to recharge groundwater table. But thanks to the negligence of its officials, the huge pit built for collecting water is on the verge of serious damage.

The civic body constructed the sump in front of the newly constructed six-storey building that houses standing committee chairpersons’ offices.

When Siddaiah was BBMP commissioner, the Palike declared 2011-12 as ‘water year’ and took initiatives to build the RWH unit at its head office to recharge groundwater and make itself self sustainable at a cost of Rs45 lakh.

The sump was constructed much before completing the construction of the six-storey building. Once the sump was completed, lorries carrying bricks and sand for the construction of the building were made to park on its concrete cover for hours.

This weakened the cover. Neither BBMP officials nor the contractor who was in-charge of the construction of the building bothered to prevent the lorries from parking on the sump.

Two days ago, the officials tied a rope around the sump to prevent people from standing on it and vehicles from being parked on it, after some employees filed a complaint with the engineers concerned about the plight of the sump.

GS Girishetty, assistant executive engineer with BBMP's multi-purpose engineering department (MPED) said he did not have any knowledge of the sump being damaged.

“The cover of the sump is made of grill and cement, which is not strong. If any heavy vehicle is parked on it, the sump will be damaged. I will make sure to get the sump repaired,” he said.
The BBMP head office is spread across 10 acres and 7 guntas or 43,926 sq m of land, including 33,728 sq m of open land and 10,198 sq m of roof area. The premises also includes 9,687 sq m of road and 23,313 sq m of park and garden.

The ambition
The BBMP expects an annual rainfall of 9.7 mm and 3.88 crore litres of rainwater to be collected at the sump. It plans to harvest three crore litres of rainwater. The BBMP uses 2.92 crore litres of water in a year and through the RWH unit, it can harvest water required for 333 days of consumption.

BBMP has been paying Rs18 lakh to BWSSB a year as water bill. It also spends Rs4 lakh for maintenance of the pipes supplying water.

The civic body plans both roof and surface harvesting. The rainwater, collected through roof harvesting from the main building, annexure and the newly constructed six-storey building, will be stored in two pits while the excess water will be directed to the recharging pit.