JOIN USHarvest water or pay hefty fine
Come February 1, Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) officials will be at your doorstep to levy fine, if you have not set up a Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) facility. The Board will also penalise apartments with more than 20 flats which have not installed Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs).
The BWSSB has been empowered to levy fines on these two counts with effect from February 1 following separate gazette notifications issued by the State Government on Wednesday.
“Besides, the government has hiked the pro rata charges from 60 per cent to 100 per cent with immediate effect,” BWSSB Chairman T M Vijaya Bhaskar told presspersons on the sidelines of an event.
Pro rata charges are the one-time service charges collected by BWSSB to provide new drinking water and sanitary connections.
RWH is mandatory for buildings constructed prior to 2009 on sites measuring 60x40 sq ft and above and those constructed on 30x40 sites after 2009.
As per the provisions of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage (Rain Water Harvesting) (Amendment) Regulations, 2015, "The owner or occupier of a residential and non-residential building who fails to provide rain water harvesting structure in the building would be levied additional charges of 25 per cent of the total water and sanitary charges for the first three months.
Thereafter, additional charges of 50 per cent will be levied until the RWH facility is created.
The penalty for the non-commercial buildings would increase from 50 to 100 per cent.
All apartments with more than 20 flats have been mandated to adopt dual piping system and provide modular sewage treatment plants (STPs), the BWSSB Chairman said. The Bangalore Sewerage (Amendment) Regulations, 2015 states that apartment should provide modular sewage and grey water treatment plant (STP/GWTP) within its premises and dual piping system - one for toilet flushing purpose and the other for all other purposes.
Failing to set up these facilities will require the owner/occupier to pay an additional levy of 25 per cent of water and sanitary charges for the first three months and an additional levy of 50 per cent until these facilities are provided. The penalty is 50 per cent for non-domestic buildings. Following the hike in pro rata charges, residential buildings will have to pay Rs 250 per square metre on total built-up area. Multi-storey apartments and commercial buildings have to pay Rs 400 and Rs 600 per square metre respectively. The new rule exempts ground floor plus one floor residential. The move will increase the Board’s annual revenue from Rs 40 crore to Rs 50 crore, he said.