Chennai: A meeting was conducted at the headquarters of the water manager last week to devise a methodology to conduct the door-to-door survey. “As per the building rules, all multi-storeyed apartments should have rainwater harvesting structures. However, some residents associations tend to fail to maintain the structures properly. Our team will check all the buildings across the city to verify whether the buildings have functional rainwater harvesting structures or not,” a senior official said.

The official added that the teams would instruct the residents and owners of commercial buildings to make the structures functional before the onset of the monsoon.

In 2019, before the outbreak of the pandemic, the Metro Water, along with the Greater Chennai Corporation, conducted a massive door-to-door survey across the city to identify rainwater harvesting structures and structures that needed restoration. Several rainwater harvesting structures were restored and abandoned community wells were revived to convert them into groundwater recharge structures.

Apart from checking the condition of the rainwater harvesting structures, the teams will also check the quality of groundwater across the city. “The exercise is aimed to reduce flooding and increase groundwater table,” the official said.

As per property tax records, there are more than 12 lakh buildings in the Chennai Corporation limits.