Vizag RWAs receive three awards for rainwater harvesting in 2024-OxBig News Network

Visakhapatnam has received three prestigious awards from Water Digest, a premier water magazine based in New Delhi. The awards recognize the port city’s rainwater harvesting efforts by the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) during 2024.

JR Nagar RWA at Old Venkojipalem has received the ‘Best RWA in Water Management’ award from the ‘Water Digest World Water Awards, 2023-2024’. K.S.R. Murthy, president of JR Nagar RWA, received the award. This is the third national recognition for JR Nagar in the past six years in water conservation and management, said Dr. Murthy, also the associate president of the Andhra Pradesh Federation of Resident Welfare Associations (APFERWAS).

Meanwhile, Tirumala Nagar RWA was recognised as the third-best RWA in rainwater harvesting, jointly with IIT-Chennai, at the Fifth National Water Awards 2024, organised by the Ministery of Jal Shakti. M. Paramanandam and G. Visveswara Rao received this award.

APFERWAS, Visakhapatnam, was selected for the ‘Water Transversality Global (WTG)‘ award in the category of ‘leading RWA- Rainwater Harvesting’ by the India Water Foundation (IWF), a Noida-based non-profit civil society and think tank dedicated to enhancing public awareness about Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Dr. Murthy and M. Durga Prasad, the general secretary of APFERWAS, received the award during the two-day ‘International Conference on Deciphering Transversality of Water-Energy—Environment Nexus’ held in New Delhi. APFERWAS was awarded for its unique project of installing nearly 60 rainwater harvesting pits in Visakhapatnam between May and July 2024.