IGBC urges HMWSSB to revive defunct rainwater harvesting pits in Hyderabad

The Indian Green Building Council has asked the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board to restore blocked rainwater-harvesting pits across the erstwhile GHMC area to arrest the falling groundwater table.

Hyderabad: Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) has urged the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) to revive defunct rainwater-harvesting pits to tackle Hyderabad’s declining groundwater table.

At a roundtable meeting here on Friday, IGBC national chairman C. Shekhar Reddy said poor maintenance had left most RWH pits across the erstwhile GHMC area blocked. He urged HMWSSB to engage an empanelled agency and collaborate with IGBC to secure a silver rating, thereby improving pit efficiency, the groundwater table and long-term sustainability.

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He suggested that the water board use the latest technology in STPs and that the Telangana government offer property-tax incentives to those building rainwater-harvesting pits, as Rajasthan does.

He said 1,283 residential and commercial projects in Telangana, covering 164 million sq ft of certified built-up area, were registered with IGBC. Of these, IGBC had certified 541 projects, saving 6.56 billion litres of water annually.

Applying the certified portfolio’s water-saving intensity to Hyderabad’s 296 million sq ft residential portfolio and 129.1 million to 170.0 million sq ft office portfolio indicated potential annual savings of 16.98 billion to 18.62 billion litres.

Telangana’s residential sector had 471.5 million sq ft of registered built-up area, of which 35.54 million sq ft was certified. Commercial properties had 282.7 million sq ft registered, with 91.88 million sq ft certified.

IGBC urged residential welfare associations to register with it and adopt net-zero and green-building concepts and proposed honouring people planting saplings as “Green Volunteers” with IGBC Awards. IGBC executive director M Anand also spoke at the meeting.