Bhubaneswar: In a bid to recharge groundwater and provide livelihood support to women SHGs, the state government has decided to create rainwater harvesting structures in all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) under the Urban Wage Employment Initiative (UWEI).
The Mission Shakti groups will be engaged as implementing partners to build such structure in each ward of all 114 ULBs of the state, an official of Housing and Urban Development (H & UD) department said.
The initiative will be taken up in a mission mode. All the 114 ULBs have been directed to immediately identify open spaces like parks, playgrounds etc. where rainwater harvesting structures will be constructed in the first phase, he said.
The government has planned to construct 5 to 10 such structures in every ward of the smaller towns and 20 to 25 projects in the corporations.
State-level task force headed by H & UD secretary G Mathi Vathanan and city-level core groups headed by commissioner/executive officers have been constituted to oversee execution of 5,000 rainwater harvesting structures. The government has set a target to build the structures in next two months and before the onset of monsoons.
A capacity building programme was organised by the department Friday. Senior officers sensitised the functionaries on the road map and discussed the step by step standard operating procedure (SOP) on how the targets would be achieved within the stipulated timeline.
Officials of the ULBs have been directed to immediately ensure issuance of work orders to Mission Shakti Groups, sensitise them and start the execution of plan.
Dedicated Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) has been set up at the department level to monitor and facilitate all UWEI activities. Besides, the ULBs have also been provided with the required human resources to implement UWEI.
Mathivathanan said that sustainable water management is the focus of the department and the most important method of doing it will be commissioning of the rainwater harvesting structures.
This will be helpful in reducing the runoff and flash floods apart from ensuring groundwater recharge, he said.
PNN
