Chandigarh
16 January 2021
DIVYA AZAD
Rotary Chandigarh Shivalik today announced the launch of its Water Harvesting and Ground Water Recharging project ‘ROTA-RAIN SAVER’ at the Gurudwara Shri Teg Bahadur Sahib, Sector 34, Chandigarh, the first site chosen for the project.
One of the biggest crisis facing the world, and India, is of water. In fact, according to a global report (World Resources Institute), India is one of 17 countries where availability of water is a major issue. The report ranks nine Indian states and union territories as having “extremely high” water stress. Haryana is among the worst hit while Punjab, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir are the others.
According to Aneesh Bhanot, President, Rotary Chandigarh Shivalik, “The government is doing its best to mitigate this growing crisis but it is important that we citizens also live up to our responsibility, try to cut down on wastage of water and take steps to enhance groundwater. Rotary has always been at the forefront of any community activity aimed at improving lives and creating a better world. Shortage of clean, drinking water impacts not only us, but our children, the generations to come and the long-term effect is tremendous.Food supply is also at risk as areas for wheat and rice cultivation face extreme water scarcity.”
“With the technical guidance and advice of senior scientists with rich experience of many years of working in water conservation projects, we have launched ROTA-RAIN SAVER, a water harvesting and ground water recharging project, the first of which is being implement in the Sector 34 Gurudwara. The cost of this is estimated to be nearly Rs. 2 lakhs, which is being funded by contributions from Rotary Chandigarh Shivalik, its Service Society as well as contributions from its members,” he added.
Giving further details, Manjeet Kaur, Secretary, Rotary Chandigrah Shivalik said, “This project is expected tobe completed in a weeks time and Rotary Chandigarh Shivalik will then hope to implement similar projects at other locations also, talks for which are underway. We will also be educating the community on the importance of water harvesting and how they can do it at their own residence, workplace etc.”
