BENGALURU: With the city staring at a water crisis, the BBMP Standing Committee on Horticulture is thinking of setting up rainwater harvesting tanks at all its parks to tide over summer months.
The idea is to use the rainwater collected in the tanks to irrigate the parks. At present BBMP is using borewell water and at places where they have gone dry, private tankers are supplying water.
BBMP standing committee on horticulture Chairman Meenakshi told Deccan Chronicle, “Under its eight zones, there are 1,326 parks under the civic body, of which 290 are in the development stage. In most of these parks arrangements have been made so that the rainwater is absorbed into the ground and recharge the groundwater. But there are no arrangements to store the rainwater in tanks.”
If rainwater is stored in tanks, it can be used for gardening purposes. Based on the size and spread of the park, tanks can be built and they can be of storage capacity between 8,000 and 15,000 litres, she added.
At present the civic body's parks depend solely on borewells for gardening. Out of the 898 borewells under the BBMP horticulture department, 298 have already run dry, she said.
We have also instructed all the eight BBMP zones to take measures on repairing borewells, hiring private tankers so that parks in the city do not get dried up in summer, Ms Meenakshi said.
Treated water
When asked about using treated water for gardening, she said they were exploring that option. “BBMP committee heads were recently elected. After I took charge, I have instructed the BBMP forest wing to bring down trees which are weak and pose danger to citizens. The next instruction was to ensure that parks do not go dry during summer and judiciously utilize funds allotted to each zones in the 206-17 budget. In the coming meetings we shall discuss on the feasibility of purchasing treated water from BWSSB and use them for gardening purposes,” Ms Meenakshi said.
It must be noted that Lal Bagh and Cubbon Park are using treated water for gardening purposes.
