At the office of the Chief Development Officer (CDO) in Varanasi, several private companies responded to a notice regarding their water usage. For years, these companies had been extracting groundwater without replenishing it. They were expected to install rooftop rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems to recharge aquifers as they continue to extract groundwater.

While private companies were concerned about the lack of space for rainwater harvesting systems, the CDO of Varanasi, Himanshu Nagpal, was discussing with a local college principal the issue of waterlogging on campus during the monsoon.

“A simple solution to both issues lay right before me. By installing rainwater harvesting structures on the rooftops of public buildings like schools and colleges, private companies could resolve the problems of waterlogging on campus and the space constraints for rainwater harvesting,” the 27-year-old IAS officer tells The Better India.

The department proposed the solution to the stakeholders and set out to create a list of such public buildings that required rooftop rainwater harvesting systems.

Nearly a year and a half ago, Himanshu observed a significant discrepancy in the district’s groundwater extraction permits. The district received only about 30 No Objection Certificates (NOCs) annually for groundwater extraction, despite reports of at least 700 borewells and submersibles being constructed each year. “Even those who took a NOC wouldn’t set up rainwater harvesting structures,” he points out.

According to the Consolidated MoJS Guidelines to regulate........

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