200 Chennai city parks to receive rainwater harvesting pits

Chennai: Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) will roll out a rainwater harvesting (RWH) scheme across parks in the city this year to recharge the groundwater table in public places and help improve the quality of water obtained from borewells.GCC's stormwater drain (SWD) department will launch the scheme at 20 crore. In the first phase, RWH systems will be installed in 200 parks at 10 lakh a park.
SWD superintending engineer A S Murugan said the RWH structures will come up in 10-12foot pits with a ring-well system. "These are ideal for parks as water percolation is more there. The pits will be dug where there is a slope, and filtering mesh will be placed to prevent leaves and mud from entering them," he said.He said the mesh will be cleaned every week, whereas the ring-wells will be cleared of stones, mud and debris once a year. "Tenders will be floated after elections and the work will be finished by June," Murugan said.Furthermore, ECO BLOC-based rainwater harvesting and sponge systems will be set up in select playgrounds at a total cost of 25 crore. Playgrounds in Jothi Nagar in Zone 1; Burma Nagar and MRP Nagar in Manali New Town, both in Zone 2; Valudhalamedu Chinnasekkadu in Zone 2; and Canal Bank Road, Gandhi Nagar, Adyar in Zone 13, will benefit from the initiative. This will help enable better rainwater absorption and reduce surface run-off in public open spaces.The city has groundwater at a depth of two to eight feet, depending on the area. Shekhar Raghavan of Rain Centre, a water conservation NGO, said groundwater can be found at a depth of just two feet on premises of several schools. "They must study the location before digging the pits," he said, adding that many RWH pits are clogged by debris, blocking percolation.Murugan said they have a two-year annual maintenance contract to maintain rainwater harvesting pits.