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.