Plumbers to be trained to revive RWH pits

The initiative is being taken up in a joint coordination by the Municipal Administration and Urban Development department, Forest, GHMC, PR&RD, HMWSSB and other departments.

Hyderabad: Worried over the depleting groundwater table and the increasing demand for water tankers, the State government is now launching a special programme to train plumbers in reviving the defunct Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) pits.

The initiative is being taken up in a joint coordination by the Municipal Administration and Urban Development department, Forest, GHMC, PR&RD, HMWSSB and other departments.

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Under this programme, plans have been prepared to train at least 1,000 plumbers by the end of this month. The programme will start shortly with plumbers to be trained free of cost.

The idea is to train plumbers at respective HMWSSB divisional offices and be presented with certificates after the programme, a senior Forest official said. Plumbers, who were well-versed with their areas, were usually contacted by households for repairs in pipelines and other issues.

After undergoing the training programme, plumbers would have all the practical and theoretical knowledge to revive a defunct RWH pit, the official said. Under Jalam Jeevam programme, HWMSSB and other departments had constructed several RWH pits in their offices in the part.

However, there was no data on the number of pits constructed and the ones that have gone defunct. This apart, it was mandatory for apartments to have RWH pits. Unfortunately, not many adhere to these rules and those that constructed pits lack awareness in maintaining them.

As a result, many pits have gone defunct in Greater Hyderabad limits alone leave aside other municipal corporation and municipalities’ limits.

There was a cascading impact was on bore wells as many have dried up, officials said. All these factors have resulted in increased demand for water tankers in Greater Hyderabad limits. Compared to last year, 10,000 more customers have booked tankers this year.

Moreover, the average water supply by tankers also increased from 12 litres to 20 litres, HMWSSB officials said. As a part of an awareness drive, officials are enrolling voluntary organisations to spread the word about the use of rainwater harvesting pits.

Already, a few organizations have been trained on reviving RWH pits and now plumbers were being roped in to ensure availability of professionals, who can repair the defunct pits for the convenience of households, they said.