New airports coming up across the country may be glass and steel structures, but they promise to come with a conscience.

Since the Union urban development ministry has long made it mandatory for all new big projects to harvest the rain, both the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and private developers say their new projects are going to be green buildings.

"Any new development project must have rainwater harvesting structures. If there's a place where the water table is shallow and harvesting will not be possible, rainwater has to be stored and used so that dependence on groundwater or municipal supply for secondary (non-drinking) uses is reduced. Similarly, wastewater has to be treated and used for purposes like gardening," a senior water resource ministry official said.

Accordingly, the AAI has is going to harvest the rain at all its project sites. "We did that in Lucknow last year and harvesting structures were put up at Udaipur airport six months back. All our airports will be harvesting the rain," said a senior AAI official.

He added that AAI is installing sewage treatment plants also at all big sites. The idea is not to have any discharge into already choked municipal drains. The wastewater will be recycled and used for gardening.

The AAI is in fact looking at green building concept for all its future projects so that they are water and energy efficient.

Steps like these could well be the only way for sustainable development in places like Delhi where the airport is in the southwest part of the city - a declared stressed area.

The water table here is very low and sub-soil reserves in the entire area are saline. Government agencies have not been able to give adequate water to the nearby residential area of Dwarka. The GMR-led Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) is aware that it will have to look for innovative ways to meet its future water requirement.

"The Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) has made rainwater harvesting mandatory in all institutions and residential colonies in notified areas (south and southwest Delhi and adjoining areas like Faridabad, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad).

DIAL is carrying out rainwater harvesting at IGI Airport. It has installed meters on the borewells in the airport premises to monitor water consumption. Accordingly, more than fifty rain water harvesting structures are spread at various points along the storm water drains within the operational area of IGI Airport," said Arun Arora, DIAL spokesperson.

"In the upcoming Terminal 3 and new runway area, rainwater structures are being designed along the proposed drainage network, open areas and new terminal buildings. The basic premise of this design would be to recharge IGI airport groundwater levels by allowing the run-off water from both the paved and unpaved areas to recharge the aquifers via the rainwater harvesting structures," he added.

The water resource ministry official said there is no way for mega projects to meet their water requirement except this. In places where the water table is shallow, developers will have to store rainwater and use that for secondary purposes. "A mega project was coming up at Ambala and we were told that the watertable is so low that harvesting will not be possible. They were asked to store rainwater and use it to prevent exploitation of the groundwater," he said.

Copyright © 2008 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. For reprint rights: