When young generation put the elder one to shame

By Vinod Nedumudy

While elders turn their back on the crucial issue of conserving water, children show the way to larger society. The state of Kerala in India, which is called the God’s Own Country for its picturesque landscape, is facing one of the severest droughts in its history with the last monsoon season letting it down giving sparse rains. Yet, the state witnesses indifferent attitude from responsible authorities towards water conservation while young children come out to spread the message of keeping pristine water sources intact. Two key events took place in March second week which highlighted this ahead of the World Water Day.

The two contrasting attitudes were exposed in Kochi, the business capital of Kerala. On the one hand the higher-ups at Cochin Port Trust, the maritime gateway to Peninsular India, which is headquartered at the picturesque Willingdon Island in Kochi, resorted to filling up a large rainwater harvesting unit built by the civic body Kochi Corporation on the island by spending Indian Rupees 7 lakh, it was reported in the local media. 

The rain water harvesting unit had a length of 15 metre and a width of 12 metre and was in the shape of a pond. It was created to cater to the drinking water needs of those in the area. Interestingly the Kochi Corporation councilor from the area was reported as saying that the project was not opposed by the CPT authorities when it was launched. But they later came out to forcibly fill the pond. This resulted not only in the loss of Rs 7 lakh to the exchequer but also a precious source for drinking water to the city. Despite protests from the councilor and several organizations, the CPT, a central government supported body, is sticking to its posture.

However, giving enough signs that all hopes are not lost, over 20 students of Kuttamassery Government High School, near Aluva, some 17 km from Kochi city, who were led by four teachers and the Parent-Teacher Association president and also environmentalist Prof S Seetharaman, came out with a long art procession from the school on March 9 through the heart of the city covering more than 25 kilometres to spread the message of conserving drinking water sources.  

Their approach was to attract the public and create awareness on the crucial situation of scarcity of drinking water in the once rain rich Kerala state. Through  ‘Ottam Thullal’ (a traditional art form) a few of them performed, they highlighted how most of the drinking water sources are polluted by the public, industries, local bodies etc. They also depicted how the major drinking water source of the city, the Periyar river, has how been polluted. 

The students described that most of the wet lands, mangroves, rivulet, paddy fields, small hills which are repositories of water has been mercilessly destroyed nowadays in the name of development. 

They emphasized that harvesting of rain water must be a practice to combat scarcity of water. The alarming mosquito menace also was highlighted.

Old fashioned RWH in Pilerne, Goa, India

In my little village of Pilerne in Goa stands our 300 year old family house. I have gone there since I was a child to spend many a happy and hot summer vacation. The house is built in two parts. The back was the original old house which in the old days had cow-dung floors and a thatched roof.Then my grandfather went away to Africa, to Nairobi where he made his fortune, married a rich woman, my beautiful grandmother and came back to India. He then built the top part of the house which was more modern and had beautiful french windows but was built in the Portuguese style with terracotta tiled roofs. I never noticed the rain water harvesting pipe which he fixed to the front porch roof which collected the run off and let it fall and percolate in the open area on the side of the house. Do look at the pipe. It still stands today and I realised that in his own way he was being an advocate of RWH in the 20's!

 

The village is green and literally is in the arms of paddy fields which spread themselves infront of the house. See the pictures. In the pictures the fields are dry and bare cause the harvest is over, the paddy is taken in and the fields are left fallow till the rains arrive. The cows and buffaloes are left to graze in these fields and their dung also helps to manure the fields.

Pilerne is a very green village and that is because of the tree cover which thankfully still remains. Fresh water is not a problem at all, and the shallow wells which are found in every home in the village, get full with rain and are always sweet and potable. We are concerned that at some stage when land sharks start looking at the paddy fields which for now are perfect Rain Water Harvesters, we will face problems of fresh water in the village.

 

Inspirational and Instructional books on RWH in India

Two books on catching the rain have recently been released in India – one a fun book to give inspiration and the other a more serious one that is instructional too.

Let’s catch the rain!
  

This 20 page colour picture book by Vinod Lal Heera Eshwer illustrates how easy it is to catch the rain and use it. Published in India by Tulika Books, it is available in English and seven Indian languages for Rs 65 (India shipping) or $USD 4.50 (International shipping) on the Tulika website.

To go with the book is an animation film Why catch the rain? and a rain catching game in which your score depends both on the raindrops you catch and those that go down the drain. 

Richa Jha’s review about the book clearly indicates that it is a book that everyone irrespective of age will enjoy.

“The message is so simple, it’ll give you goose bumps wondering why nothing is being done about it, panning across individual and state levels; the words and the solutions are so obvious, they’ll make you feel stupid for having to look into a book for them; the idea behind the book is so familiar and commonplace, you’ll wonder why it took us writers and editors and illustrators and publishers this long to take it to our kids in this direct a manner; the simplicity of this book is so endearing, it makes you salute the mind behind it; the impact of a book like this is so powerful, it makes you get up and check every single tap in your house – just in case. A book like this stops being just a book; share it with as many people as is possible – it is the blueprint for a safer, happier, healthier and more peaceful tomorrow. Give it in the hands of every human being; there will never be a WW III over water!”

Catch Water Where It Falls - Toolkit on Urban Rainwater Harvesting

This 172 page book by Gita Kavarana and Sushmita Sengupta is based on case studies of rain water implementation in various types of premises. These include independent residences, residential colonies and apartments, schools, hospitals, government buildings, places of worship, industries, hotels, shopping complexes, sports complexes, urban lakes and wells. It also serves as a guide (a toolkit as the title says) to help you design and implement a rain water harvesting system in your premises.

Published in India by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), it is available in English for Rs 595 (India shipping) or $USD 38.00 (International shipping) on the CSEIndian Store and CSDGlobal Store. 

Happy rain water harvesting!

Rain Water harvesting in London,UK

We are in London for Christmas and went off scouting for Boxing Day deals at B & Q in New Malden. Going up the escalator into the store our eyes fell on the large posters showing off how the store is the 'greenest' one in the chain. For me an environment journalist the information about their harvesting rain from the roof to water the plants in their rooftop garden centre was interesting.

Walking out into the open- to- sky garden we were greeted with brightly flowering Primroses which brightened our dank and grey day. Looking around at the roof we could see the neat piping collecting the rainwater to be used to water the collection of garden plants.

There were posters in the garden utilities area encouraging the collection of rain water in a water butt. " Collect the 85,000 litres of rain water that falls on your roof," advised a poster and for me coming from a dry and thirsty India to a wet UK, the fact that RWH is being advocated here as well was a good feeling. No one even thinks about how much pristine and clear water gets wasted when rain water is allowed to flow off any where in the world.










Considering that this is the UK where there is so much rain so one assumes there is plenty of water, it is good to see RWH advocacy being pushed and people being made aware of the fact that collecting rainwater could help to water their gardens and open areas rather than let it flow away unused.

A rain ‘train’ into Bangalore’s lakes

The Metro on MG Road All it needs is a little human ingenuity to be able to help ourselves overcome our water problems in Bangalore. Bangalore sports the ugly new Metro through our city streets and whenever it rains, sheets of water cascade down the raised platform from all sides, on the hapless people and the road below. Now, the managing director of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has announced that as per the RWH plans for the Namma Metro Phase II plan, besides the percolation pits where the rain water recharges the ground water, selected lakes along the route of the Metro will be recharged directly using a network of viaducts,with rain water collected to help rejuvenate them.

At a recent FKCCI (Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce) Mr Sivasailam said the BMRCL will conduct this drive as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility acitivity. “ The two lakes which have been selected are the Kengeri Lake on Mysore Road and the Veerasandra Lake along Hosur Road. Experts are being consulted to help execute the plan. Depending on the success of this experiment we will gradually extend this to other lakes as well, which come along the Metro corridor,” he said. Talking about the quantity of water that can be collected by RWH from the Metro platform he said, “ if 42 km is the length of the corridor, multiply it by the 10 meters width to get the amount of water that can be collected. The second phase of the Namma Metro which is still to be completed is 72 km which can collect far more water than this phase,” he said.

The percolation pit Since the water collected can contain a lot of particulate matter, it will be treated before being released into the lakes.This will be a great boost to the quality of water now in the lakes which most often than not is unadulterated sewage from apartment blocks nearby, or run off from industrial units around the lake. This RWH was not attached to the Phase I of the Namma Metro as the pipeline network has to be incorporated in the design stage itself. But the water being collected in Phase I was not being wasted he clarified, but being channelised into the percolation pits and being used to water the plants decorating the medians.

 The plants on the median watered by RWH All pictures by Gregory de Nazareth

Retrofitting RWH in houses

The Nagarajan house on Sarakki Main Road, JP Nagar 1^st Phase, Bangalore looks just like any other house we commonly see in Bangalore. Built in 1981, on a 60 ft x 40 ft site, the single storey house was, at that time, at the southern most end of Bangalore city limits.

While building the house, no provision was made for rain water harvesting (RWH). “We built the house as economically as we could. I was working in HAL Hospital (located near the HAL Bangalore Airport at that time) so we did not need to worry about accommodation as we had the doctors’ quarters, but we wanted to build a house where we could live after my retirement. I took loans to buy the site and build the house.”, said Dr Nagarajan. The rain water from the roof and compound flowed off into the storm water drains which in turn flowed into the main canals and finally into the lakes of the vicinity. “Many people dig wells before construction of their houses, but we didn’t spend that extra amount on a well either.”, said Dr Nagarajan.

After construction, the house was given out on rent for several years and the family moved there only in 1995, after Dr Nagarajan retired. A few months after they occupied it, they installed solar panels. “The Electricity Department was publicizing use of solar panels and they were offering a subsidy to those who installed it in their homes. Even in the summer we need hot water to bathe, so we felt that a solar heater would save electricity.  So we got it done.”, says Dr Nagarajan. The solar panels eliminated the need to use the geyser for most of the year. “Just a little sunlight during the day is enough to provide sufficient hot water for four to five people to bathe. Only on really cloudy days do we need to use the geyser.”, said Dr Nagarajan.  

In 2003, a second storey was added to the house. Though there was the inclination to save nature’s resources and use them wisely, RWH was not in Dr Nagarajan’s thoughts. “While construction was happening, it did not occur to us to do rain water harvesting. We also did not feel the need for an extra water source as there was sufficient supply of corporation water.”, said Dr Nagarajan.

The Nagarajan house (centre)

Over the next few years, the city limits extended several kilometres south. Increased population had its impact on water consumption and water started becoming precious. As a safeguard, people started digging wells and bore wells in their compounds. Dr Nagarajan too tried to get a bore well dug. While drilling into the earth, pebbles started getting extracted after just a few metres and the loose soil gave way. The bore well idea had to be abandoned and Dr Nagarajan incurred a loss of a few thousands of rupees.

Water shortage apart, the monsoons created havoc in parts of Bangalore because the rain water had no where to go. Low lying areas were getting flooded and water entering people’s homes was not uncommon. It still happens.

In 2007, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) started encouraging people to do RWH in their houses. New constructions had to mandatorily show it in their plan before they received permission to build. For existing houses there were no mandatory requirements until the BWSSB Amendment Act of August 2009. According to the Act, RWH was made mandatory – Every owner or occupier of a building having sital area of 2400 sq ft and above or every owner who proposes to construct a building on a sital area of 1200 sq ft or more, shall provide a rain water harvesting structure for storage for use or for ground water recharge. The deadline given was 27^th May 2010. It was mentioned that if people failed to implement RWH, they were liable to have their water supply turned off. Plumbers were specially trained by the BWSSB to help people in making their houses RWH compliant.  

Dr Nagarajan wanted to meet the compliance deadline but he was not sure how complicated implementation would be, given that the house was not designed with RWH in mind. He found a plumber and together they worked out a design for RWH in the house. Dr Nagarajan decided that he would store the water for use so he invested in a 2000 litre tank. The over flow would be directed into the ground for recharge. The terrace catchment area of approximately 1000 sq ft, was generally quite clean and free of leaves so there was no need of a filtration system. Having worked out the plan, it took just a day to do the piping and complete the RWH for the house.

Now rain water from the roof is directed to the storage tank, placed in an area on the roof of the ground floor. From the storage tank, pipes lead down to the ground floor – to the backyard, frontyard and the toilets. The total cost including the cost of the storage tank, in April 2010, was Rs 22,000/-. 

Retro-fitting RWH into an already existing house seemed challenging, but turned out to be quite simple.

 Piping to carry rain water from the first floor terrace to the water storage tank.

A 2000 litre rain water storage tank. Note the wide inflow pipe (on the top) from the terrace and the narrow outflow pipe (at the bottom).

 The wash basin has one pipe from the rain water storage tank and one from the BWSSB water tank.

One pipe from the rain water storage tank is accessible in the front yard.  

“We did RWH because it was a requirement of BWSSB but we are happy we got it done because we are conserving water. Rain water is pure. We use the water for washing vessels, mopping, washing clothes, watering plants, car cleaning… all purposes in the house except cooking, drinking and bathing.”, said Dr Nagarajan. “There are no maintenance costs and RWH has reduced the monthly water bill by about Rs 100/-. The satisfaction we get when we use the harvested water cannot be expressed.”

The initial deadline for implementing RWH (27^th May 2010) kept getting extended by the BWSSB and the last deadline was 31^st March 2012. However, there are still innumerable houses that still have no RWH in place. They don’t know what they are missing! Maybe Dr Nagarajan’s experience will encourage them to do their bit to catch precious water where it drops.

Pics: Dr Nagarajan

A new Rainwater Harvesting convert!

“ The whole experience has inspired me,” says Ramsy Pinto a young engineer from IBM. “What initially started out as a knee jerk reaction to the BWSSB notification for mandatory RWH in my house, has instead taught me the true benefits of harvesting the rain. Now I will fit the same system in my house in Mangalore and enjoy the benefits there as well.”

For me a journalist who writes to educate and push the need to RWH in Bangalore, India, where fresh water is becoming a huge problem, every convert is a huge step in the right direction! Now Ramsy will help me get the word out to his connections and in the RWH arena, the spread of the concept by word-of-mouth is the best method. Ramsy and his little family live in a large house in Hennur, Bangalore with a manicured garden. “We buy water in tankers at Rs 250/- per tanker and I need 8-10 tankers a month for our home and garden needs,” explains Ramsy. What was initially planned along with his land-lord was the rainwater was going to be channelised to rejuvenate the ground water. There were certain guidelines which the BWSSB had set down including re-charging the ground water table with the rain water collected. If this was not done,the BWSSB had threatened that no ‘regular’ government supplied connection would be given to the house, once Cauvery river water began to be piped to the area.It was really just a stop gap arrangement to show the BWSSB that they had complied.

“ The first few quotes to undertake the job,we got from specialists were in the region of one half lakh and above. Then we were lucky to get this retired engineer named Jeff D’Lemos who quoted such a tiny figure, we were unsure if he could handle the job,” said Ramsy. Jeff looked at the three drains on the roof of the building and checked which drain took 50 – 70% of the water down. Then Jeff bought three lengths of PVC pipe of 6 inch diameter and a filter authorised by the government of India and fitted them. The rainwater is filtered and then goes straight into the sump and is used for all the requirements of the house.

Ramsy and his wife Shobha are so pleased that now for five months of the year they do not have to buy any tankers of water. Instead they get fresh and pure rain water. Of course they have to keep the terrace clean and release the first flow of rain water collected incase its got a lot of dust off the roof. After that the filter does its job and they get an ample supply of water to fill their sump. You can almost hear his chuckle of delight when he tells you that in the first year itself, not only has he got back his investment of Rs.15,000 he also feels he is doing something to cut back on depleting the ground water table by pumping the excess rainwater to the borewell in the premises.

As one can see in the pictures, the rains have brought welcome relief and also a strong advocate for RWH in Ramsy who will happily pass the word around about its efficacy and why all of us have to help ourselves rather than whine about water scarcity in the city of Bangalore.