From water woes to water wows

New Delhi: Residents of a colony in the capital have found a permanent solution to their water woes.

A small initiatiative they took has finally paid off.

The residents of the NRI colony in South Delhi always faced an acute water shortage. But coming monsoon will be the end of their water crisis.

The people of the colony have just had the inauguration of their rainwater-harvesting project.

Theirs is also the largest rainwater-harvesting project in any residential colony in India.

"We are thrilled. It's been a collective effort and everybody's contributed to it," says a resident of the colony, Vimala.

Delhi receives an average of 611 mm of rainfall every year. With nine recharge wells, this colony will collect upto 1.4 crore litres of water just from the rains.

"We have tested it, about 15,000 litres of water has gone in one well efficiently," says Residents Welfare Association (RWA) President A S Bahl.

But the achievement didn’t come easy. This project cost about eight and a half lakh rupees - half of which was paid by residents.

But there could be many residence complexes that cannot afford such projects.

However, the Chief Minister Shiela Dixxit did say the Delhi Government might consider supporting similar projects.

"The MLA fund worth 2 crores, we may allow it to be used for funding of rain water harvesting," Dixit said.

With the water table depleting faster than ever in the capital, rain water harvesting is definitely a solution that needs to be paid serious attention to.