Harvest rain water or pay a bigger penalty

Consumers who are yet to adopt rainwater harvesting will now have to pay a higher water bill.

Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) on Wednesday decided to increase the penalty on the water bill for those who have not yet set up rainwater harvesting models on their premises. This decision was taken at the BWSSB board meeting.

BWSSB chairman Tushar Girinath said that it has been decided in the board meeting to increase the penalty by 50% in case of domestic consumers and 100% in case of commercial establishments. The decision will be notified and then implemented with immediate effect in the coming days. There is no need for a government order as the government has mandated that all units should adopt rainwater harvesting.

BWSSB engineer-in-chief Kemparamaiah said the idea was not to harass people but to drive them to take up RWH and conserve water. Monsoon is just around the corner. The steps to set up models like pits and overhead tanks have been laid down on the BWSSB website. People should take advantage and set them up, he said.

Kemparamaiah said that of the 1.95 lakh consumers required to adopt RWH, only 1.20 lakh consumers have implemented it. The remaining 75,000 are yet to comply with it and will be penalised. The board collects around Rs 90 lakh to one Rs 1 crore as penalty from those who have not installed RWH. Annually, around Rs, 12 crores is collected.

Officials said the problem lies in densely populated areas like Rajajinagar and Majestic where there is no space to set up RWH.