The AssamState Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) has taken an initiative on RainWater Harvesting (RWH) and Ground Water Recharging (GWR) towards the urbanflood management and water conservation in Guwahati. In order to discuss theseinitiatives of ASDMA, a meeting was held on Tuesday chaired by Additional ChiefSecretary of revenue and disaster management department Kumar Sanjay Krishna.

During themeeting, it has been suggested that Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) andGuwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) should implement theexisting clauses of Guwahati building by-laws.

It also saidthat the by-laws have provisions to make RWH and GWR compulsory for all thebuilders and the same should be enforced in the city.

The meetingattended by Additional Secretary of R & DM department Ashok Kumar Barmanand engineering consultant Rajesh Dutta said that importance should also begiven to the awareness generation campaign to sensitize the general people inthis regard.

The presentationfurther emphasized on how RWH and GWR can bring some solutions to urbanflooding by way of preventing run-off water from households/establishments toflow and flood the drains and thereby cause artificial flood.

Simple RWHstructure could also replenish ground water level thereby facilitating theavailability of water during lean season.