Rainwater harvesting systems built to save water, recharge underground water lying defunct

Despite repeated promises made by the local municipal council to solve the problem of waterlogging and raise the groundwater the problem persists in the city. Every monsoon, residents struggle with waterlogged markets and parks. At the same time, the rainwater harvesting systems built to save water and recharge the underground water are lying defunct.

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In Bhadhra Park and Jiwan Singh Jain Park, the rainwater harvesting systems have not worked for the past two years. In 2023, the municipal council spent around Rs 37 lakh to install these systems in four city parks. The idea was to collect rainwater and let it soak into the ground. But the systems were either built incorrectly or left incomplete. In many places, only brick boundaries were made. There are no proper filters, no pipelines and most pits are filled with mud. The water does not go into the ground and the whole setup is non-functional.

Residents like Mahesh Kumar, Gorishankar Bansal, Lavish Kumar, Devika Rani, and Sumanlata, who visit the parks regularly, say that most of these systems are just for show. Some don’t even collect water. In Bhadra Park, rainwater collects up to 2 ft during heavy rain, damaging the plants instead of helping these grow.

Due to poor water management, many plants in the parks are drying up because there is no water for irrigation. Now, the municipal council has made a new plan to dig borewells in 76 parks. A budget of around Rs 1.10 crore has been set aside for this. The goal is to use groundwater to keep the parks green since the rainwater harvesting systems have failed.

Officials from the council admit that the systems in some parks are not working and will be repaired. But local people and former councillor Kaushalya Devi blame corruption for the failure. They say the contractor did poor-quality work, but instead of taking action, the municipal council still made the full payment. Even after receiving notice from the Executive Engineer (XEN), the contractor did not fix the problems.

Residents like Ravi Kumar and Jatin Bansal say the entire project has been wasted, and now they are left to face both flooding and dry, dying parks. Every rainy season brings the same trouble and the promises of improvement remain unfulfilled.