This blog is dedicated to our Journalists for Rainwater Harvesting. They will report on examples of rainwater harvesting in their own countries and communities, helping us raise the profile of rainwater harvesting - both locally and globally.

Friday 18 September 2015

Rain Water Harvesting @ Sarjapur Road, Fire Station, Bangalore



We were driving past the Sarjapur Road Fire station and Rain Water Harvesting specialists Vijayraj and Michael Baptiste decided to make a stop to show me the facility that they had set up. This is in water starved Sarjapur where all around like locusts water tankers were rushing around carrying water to the hundreds of flats which have sprung up across the area.


This is a small station unlike the massive places we are used to in old Bangalore. Built in a modern style where the shelter for the fire engines is very futuristic, like something out of the cartoon characters, the Jettsons.


A massive ten thousand litre tank stood behind the main building into which the rain water from the entire roof poured into this tank. The water was directed into a large filter, which first threw out the dirt like leaves and other debris, before it allowed the water to flow into the tank.


Check out the picture and see the leaves from the nearby champak tree first removed by the filter before the clean water flows in.


But as Vijayraj explained in detail, even the run off once the tank was full was not lost. Pipes took the over flow into a massive underground sump where not a drop of water was lost.

For a Fire station in a water starved area is definitely a positive step to harness the rain and a positive step towards a sustainable solution making it less dependant on the government water supply.

Friday 29 May 2015

Rain Water Harvesting in The Grand Oak, Coorg, India



For a journalist who is passionate about Rain Water Harvesting it was exciting to see what Chitra Ganapathy has done in her home - stay called The Grand Oak in Coorg. A thirteen acre property, Chitra has over the last 15 years turned the acerage which was dry and barren into a lush paradise. How?
She has Rain Water harvested every drop that falls from the skies and let the water fill up a lake which she got dug 15 years ago which keeps the wells in the property and the water table up.


Huge Hume pipes criss cross the property and take the water down to the lake and the over flow goes into the stream which runs around the property.


Chitra has the stream running all around the property which as can be seen in the picture, is full with water through most of the year.


Once in the summer she needed water desperately and began to use the water in the lake she has dug. As the water in the lake went down the water in all the wells dropped to nothing. Then speaking to a water specialist he told her never to use the water in the lake as the rain water harvested there keeps the water table of the area high throughout the property.


The lake as you can see is a serene water body which her home-stay guests love to sit around and enjoy the peaceful expanse of water with large fish in it.


Rain Water is such a boon and Chitra has seen the benefits of harvesting it all on her property. We city dwellers need to learn from her and then never do we need to suffer from the harsh reality of no fresh water during our scorching summers.