A meeting was convened on Tuesday to discuss the initiatives of Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) on Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) and Ground Water Recharging (GWR) towards the urban flood management and water conservation in Guwahati city.
The meeting at ASDMA conference hall was chaired by the additional chief secretary of revenue and disaster management department Kumar Sanjay Krishna.
Discussing on the presentation on RWH and GWR by Ashok Kumar Barman, additional secretary of R & DM Department and Rajesh Dutta, engineering consultant, ASDMA on existing implementation status in Guwahati city and involvement of various stakeholders, it was suggested that Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) and Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) should implement the existing clauses of Guwahati building by- laws.
The by-laws have provisions to make RWH and GWR compulsory for all the builders and the same should be enforced in Guwahati city.
Moreover, importance should be given to the awareness generation campaign to sensitize the general people in this regard.
The presentation further emphasized on how RWH and GWR can bring some solutions to urban flooding by way of preventing run-off water from households/establishments to flow and flood the drains and thereby cause artificial flood.
Simple RWH structure could also help replenish ground water level thereby facilitating the availability of water during lean season.
The meeting was also attended by the chief executive officer of ASDMA Aruna Rajoria, chief executive officer of Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority Moloy Bora and various senior officials from other government department and agencies.