Coimbatore: The city corporation is all set to set up rainwater harvesting structures at bus stands, parks , commercial complexes and sites and buildings owned by it. Corporation commissioner K Vijayakarthikeyan shas earmarked 50 lakh for this purpose.“We have already made it mandatory for the residents to set up rainwater harvesting structures at their plots and houses for getting building approval,” the corporation commissioner said.The civic body now plans to set an example by setting up these structures in its buildings to harvest rainwater. “We already have rainwater harvesting structures in some parks and corporation buildings. We will also renovate them, besides setting up more such structures. With the water problem looming large, we thought it is the right thing to do to improve the groundwater level,” said a corporation engineer.According to town planning officer Ravichandran, revenue officials had already started the drive to identify the households that haven’t set up rainwater harvesting structures. “We will first ask them to set it up. In the next step, we will not collect property tax and disconnect water supply to such houses,” he said.Several local NGOs have set up rainwater harvesting structures in the city and they now wanted the corporation to maintain them. Siruthuli, an environmental NGO, had rejuvenated more than 200 rainwater harvesting structures in 2014. tnn

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