The district administration has now made it mandatory for houses with more than 100 square metres covered area to have a rainwater harvesting system in place. Twenty teams have been constituted to grant permission to install the systems and ensure their functioning.

The orders come in the wake of a recent Punjab and Haryana High Court directions barring Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) from issuing fresh licences for housing projects without an undertaking from the builders not to draw ground water.