The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has made rainwater harvesting mandatory in all schools in the city that fall under the civic body on Wednesday. According to reports, the municipal corporation has already started the work in several schools. Reports suggest that while the civic body is starting the work now, schools feel that the work should have been completed before the monsoon season started. 

Reports further stated that according to the BMC, from now on if a school requires a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) then it should follow the infrastructure guidelines given by the civic body. One of the guidelines include the installation of rainwater harvesting. It is further revealed through reports that the School Infrastructure Cell (SIC) will be working on the construction and redevelopment of the rainwater harvesting system in the civic body-owned schools.

Rainwater harvesting in existing schools 

According to reports, there are around 200 schools in the city that already have a rainwater harvesting system. Some of the schools include Bharucha Road Municipal School, Sakharam Tare Municipal School in the Kandivli localities and other schools in Bandra East, Mankhurd, Govandi, Sion, Santacruz. However, due to lack of maintenance, the rainwater harvesting system area has turned into garbage dumps, stated a report. It further stated that schools had only been receiving muddy water for a long time. However, officials claimed to put work into progress immediately. 

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BMC puts posters

According to news reports, the municipal corporation is trying to raise awareness about rainwater harvesting in all possible ways. The BMC has put up around 1.92 lakh posters across the city in a move to raise awareness about the system, stated a report.

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Importance of rainwater harvesting 

As freshwater resources are becoming scarce, the need for rainwater harvesting is increasing. The process of rainwater harvesting includes collecting and storing rainwater for different purposes as well as for future needs. The process can be done in two ways- the rainwater that flows in the urban areas can be collected and stored for the groundwater resources. Apart from this, the rainwater can be directly transferred into a tank for daily purposes. 

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