Indore Civic Body to Make Rainwater Harvesting Compulsory

Soon, residential and commercial buildings constructed in Indore will have to be equipped with rainwater harvesting systems. Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) is going to make roof top rainwater harvesting mandatory in all buildings constructed on a minimum of 1000 sq ft of area. Corporation officials said that it will be made mandatory by amending bylaws, and the process of the same is on. “We have proposed amendments to the IMC’s building permission bylaws and invited claims and objections to make roof top rain harvesting system mandatory in all buildings constructed in municipal limit limits of Indore. We hope to make it compulsory within a month or so,” said Municipal Commissioner Pratibha Pal. The commissioner said that it will be mandatory for both new and old buildings having a plot size of 1000 sq ft or more and the initiative has also been included in the vision plan of the year 2022. IMC is also considering giving a rebate in property tax for building owners if they install a rainwater harvesting system in their building. MC will also give free technical advice and consultancy to those who would want to install the system. “We are targeting to cover at least 50,000 buildings and equip them with rainwater harvesting systems before the next monsoon season,” said Pal. Civic body officials believe that rainwater harvesting is the only way to arrest the depleting ground water level, and said that rainwater harvesting is mandatory for only G+3 structures or above with a minimum of 250 sq meter of construction area under Madhya Pradesh Bhumi Vikas Rules, 1984. A onetime rebate of 6 per cent on property tax is also given to the building owner for implementing rainwater harvesting systems. There are around 18000 buildings including private and government ones which already have a rainwater harvesting system. If a 100 sq meter building installs a rooftop rainwater harvesting system, it conserves around 50,000 litres of rainwater.