CDA to incentivise structures with ‘rainwater harvesting’ facilities

Islamabad : With concerns regarding water crisis gaining greater attention the concerned departments and agencies have been looking into the issue for finding some short term and long term sustainable solutions.

And the Capital Development Authority (CDA) is not lagging too far behind not only focusing on water conservation issues but also to encourage citizens to get involved in such efforts that may help in these efforts.

The Chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Chief Commissioner of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Amir Ali Ahmed, while talking to ‘The News’ said that the Authority is contemplating taking some solid initiatives to raise awareness amongst the citizens as to how precious water is becoming as well as taking some administrative steps which will promote rainwater harvesting during wet spells.

The ‘rainwater harvesting’ initiative was launched a few years back by Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, the then Chairman of the CDA and his team. Those were the years when Islamabad, probably, had the lowest rain falls in both monsoon seasons as well as in winters. However, it could not get popular among the people.

This time the CDA is trying to take up the matter with a different angle. “We are planning to launch a two-pronged strategy to promote rainwater harvesting this time,” the CDA Chairman Amir Ali Ahmed told ‘The News’ Saturday.

“While on one hand we are working on devising a policy through our ‘Building Control Directorate’ to encourage the people to design their domestic and commercial structures with ‘rainwater harvesting’ facility included, on the other hand we will launch a comprehensive mass awareness campaign to win the support of general public in this regard,” the Chairman of the Authority said.

“To encourage people submitting new construction plans of buildings we are thinking about offering them certain attractive incentives if they will include appropriate rainwater harvesting facilities in their plans.

“On the other hand, we will also encourage the owners of already constructed houses and buildings to create rainwater harvesting facilities. We, in collaboration with the engineering and building control departments are working on creating some models that the people may easily adopt to harvest rainwater in rainy seasons,” the Chairman of the Authority said.

“It has been widely observed that people are using the treated water supplied by the CDA for watering lawns and gardens, car washing and even open areas in their homes, wasting a huge quantity of water in such activities,” the Chairman pointed out.

“We have been imposing fines on the households found guilty of wasting water but that hardly is a preventive because the amount of fine is too low. We believe it would be a much better idea to create awareness, especially involving youth, the students in the educational institutions, who can bring about a change in the thinking of adults at home about waste of water and how precious it is becoming with each passing day,” the CDA Chairman said.

Meanwhile, he said, if this rainwater harvesting initiative may become a success, it would also help preserving water in a big way because people can use the collected rainwater for watering their lawns, gardening, washing vehicles and porch areas.