Most state hospitals, health centres don’t harvest rainwater

With borewells of several government hospitals in the state drying up, water scarcity continues to be a problem for these hospitals. Only a few government hospitals here harvest rainwater, while others that have put up a rainwater harvesting system, have the facility in only a few buildings.

Although the state health department officials said that they have made arrangements to ensure that water is available at government hospitals round the clock, the authorities are yet to ensure the hospitals set up rainwater harvesting systems in all their buildings.

“We have six borewells within the hospital premises and three of them have dried up. We have rainwater harvesting systems in about 50 per cent of the buildings in the hospital. Since the water that we get from the remaining borewells is insufficient, we depend on the lorry water for the everyday use,” said Dr Ramesh, the resident medical officer of Stanley Medical College and Hospital.

Two major hospitals in the city — Royapettah Government Hospital and Institute of Child Health — do not have the rainwater harvesting system in the premises. The authorities at the Royapettah Government General Hospital said that the hospital only has borewells and another well for the collection of rainwater that helps to ensure adequate water supply at the hospital.

Hospital authorities at Institute of Child Health said that the Greater Chennai Corporation and Metrowater department prioritises the government hospitals and water is being supplied to them via trucks, hence, they claimed that they did not find it necessary to harvest rainwater. An official, however, said that with the water scarcity intensifying, the engineering department would consider setting up a rainwater harvesting system in government hospitals.

Dr Narayana Swami, the medical superintendent of Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, said, “We cannot have wells in the hospital premises as the Cooum river is in proximity and this would lead to mixing of polluted water. But, the engineering department of the hospital has properly linked drains to the rainwater harvesting system at the hospital and this helps in recharging of groundwater table.”

While RGGGH has the provision of a rainwater harvesting system in all its buildings, only a few buildings in the government district headquartered hospitals collect rainwater.

“At least 50 per cent of the hospital buildings have the facility to collect rainwater. Because of the old infrastructure of government hospital buildings, rainwater harvesting systems cannot be set up in all the buildings,” said Dr P Vasanthamani, the dean of Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital.

Besides the government general hospital, the other medical institutions such as the Institute of Mental Health, Government Eye Hospital, Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology also do not have the facility to harvest rainwater.

Dr Narayana Babu, the dean of Tamil Nadu Multi Speciality Hospital, said, “We have rainwater harvesting systems in all the seven buildings at the hospital. But, such facilities at only a few government hospitals will not help to overcome the water scarcity and all the hospitals including the private sector ones should set up the facility for better impact.”

Even though officials promote rainwater harvesting among the public, the healthcare facilities owned by the government — such as primary healthcare centres — do not have the system. With more than 1,800 primary health centres and at least 400 urban primary health centres across Tamil Nadu, setting up of rainwater harvesting systems would have helped better to recharge groundwater levels.