Rainwater harvesting sites in Mumbai civic schools awash with garbage

The sump at Bharucha Road civic school is full of garbage

The ambitious plan for rainwater harvesting in civic schools seems to have gone down the drain. A member of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) education committee has revealed the dismal situation with visual proof, of how areas prepared for rainwater harvesting have turned into places to dump garbage. A letter has been written to the authorities about this because as much as '2 lakh was spent per project. While two civic schools were inspected, the member wants all such schools reviewed. BMC schools built or reconstructed after 2007 had provisions for rainwater harvesting. Other than the required arrangement of pipes for this from the roof of the building, this included constructing a sump on the ground floor. But visits to two civic schools have shown how these ground floor sumps have turned into garbage dumps.

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Sumps become garbage dumps

Sainath Durge, Core Committee member of the Yuva Sena, who is a member of the education committee at BMC, visited two schools. "Our visits to civic schools in R north ward have shown a very disappointing picture. It is disheartening that the rainwater harvesting plan is not functioning in these schools, but even disappointing is the fact that the places constructed to work as water tanks are being used to dump garbage. We have submitted our findings to the authorities along with a letter demanding a review of the situation in all schools," said Durge, adding that action should be taken against those responsible. The investigation by Durge includes two schools, Bharucha Road civic school in Dahisar, and Sakharam Tare Marg civic school, in Kandivali.

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The site at Sakharam Tare Marg civic school is the same

'Will initiate a review'

Deputy Chief Engineer Atul Kulkarni, who looks after the projects, said, "We have received the letter and will initiate a review of all the schools where these provisions were made. Local ward level engineers will be informed to ensure the rainwater harvesting plants are in good condition." Adding to this Kulkarni further said, "All the sumps constructed on ground floor were given covers so that the rainwater collected there is covered. The photos, however, show that they are lying uncovered and because of that garbage is thrown into them. It is also important to create awareness among school heads to ensure correct functioning of this system. We will work toward it."

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