KOCHI: Back in 2002, the Kerala government had embarked on a mission that would have changed the face of water supply in the state, but even after 10 years and spending crores of rupees, all that remains of the mega rain water harvesting project ‘Varsha’ is a few thousands of unused water tanks.The first phase of the project was launched in 2002 in Ernakulam by the then Irrigation Minister T M Jacob targeting the coastal areas in the districts of Alappuzha, Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam andErnakulam, covering around 3,000 households spending `3 crore. The scheme was to be extended to the whole of the state in the following years.As part of its campaign to popularise rainwater harvesting, the Kerala government also passed an order amending the Kerala Municipality Building Rules, whereby, apart from notable exceptions, all new buildings were to have rain water harvesting facility under them.The scheme was initially welcomed with much enthusiasm and a single panchayat like Vypeen got more than a 1,000 units of rain water harvesting facility. Each of the rain water harvesting unit consisted of a water tank into which rain water was collected on roof tops. Each unit benefited two to five households, according to the area in which they were built.Though the government bore 90 per cent of the cost, annual maintenance of the system was to be undertaken by the beneficiaries. “Every year the system has to be cleaned and maintenance undertaken. But there was neither any funding nor any monitoring system to check its functioning. So over the years the facility gathered dust,” said an official from of Kerala Water Authority in Ernakulam.Moreover, in some areas, lack of space to build the tank was another constraint. “In villages like ours there are about three houses in 10-cents of land. So people were reluctant to give the area for the water tank,” said the president of the Chellanam panchayat, where the scheme failed to take off, in spite of almost round-the-year scarcity of water.But officials at the KWA say that it was the availability of other sources of water in many areas that has led to the abandonment of the units. “Earlier many of these areas were reeling under water scarcity. So they were using the rain harvesting system well. But over the years when water was readily available, people abandoned the water harvesting system as it required some effort. Even now there are pockets in districts like Idukki where the system is being used very well and more units are being sanctioned,” said KWA MD Ashok Kumar Singh.
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