India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Mandates Rainwater Harvesting
21 November 2009
India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will implement rainwater harvesting in all the existing ONGC residential complexes across India. ONGC has made it mandatory to implement the system in all future projects also.
The objective of the scheme is to replenish the ground water table which is slowly receding due to urban development and excessive and continued exploitation of ground water.
In a statement, ONGC said that with the concept of triple bottomline getting more relevant and focused, it has been realized that the companies operating in both global and domestic markets are increasingly required to incorporate the social, economic and environmental concerns into their business while building shareholders’ value and taking care of stakeholders’ interest.
In its endeavor to provide sustainable solution to water scarcity, ONGC has focused on rainwater harvesting.
This is a great idea and is practiced in places like Germany where there is a rainwater tax. I understand the logic behind the tax is that public utilities are ultimately treating the runoff, so a variable tax based on the size of property & amount of water being treated is justified. While the driving force behind rainwater harvesting in India is different than in Germany, it's still something that should be done a lot more around the world.
Posted by: ejj | 21 November 2009 at 08:39 PM
"...replenish the ground water table..."
This makes sense from a storage and evaporation perspective. Putting the water in lakes would cause lots of evaporation and this eliminates that.
Posted by: SJC | 24 November 2009 at 08:52 AM