University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore's RWH effort

picture: K Gopinathan: Hindu. Watershed tank filled to the brim on the UAS campus.

The varsity has dredged and cleaned the ponds and tanks across its 1300 acre campus in Bangalore, India. With Bangalore experiencing unprecedented showers in great abundance in 2013, the University has taken the initiative to clean up its six watershed ponds besides the six minor ones. They are all brimming with water with the excess rain. De-silting and clearing the obstacles in the connecting network of storm water drains have helped to direct the rain water into the ponds across the campus.

" We have 56 bore-wells on the university campus. Of them 20 had gone dry and now have sprung back to life," says MA Shankar, UAS-B Director of Research. " In addition people who live in the surrounding areas have happily confirmed that their dried borewells have also sprung to life."

This is a great lesson for Bangalore, reeling just recently from a fresh water shortage. " Historically Bangalore had hundreds of tanks to collect all the rain that fell across the city. These kept the water table up. We need to go back to that tradition," says Professor Shankar.

The University is willing to help the civic authorities of Bangalore in recharging ground water with the success that they have achieved.

Hope someone is listening!

A cartoon about RWH in India!

Just to make you smile and drive home the concept of RWH in India!

RWH on a war footing by the Serai Group in Bandipur, India

 

Walking out of my room, slinging my camera over my shoulder, my eyes were greeted with a riot of flaming magenta and red bougainvillea, flowering just outside the front door of my cottage, in The Serai, Bandipur.

  

It was a dry fresh 7a.m. filled with liquid birdsong, as I walked along a path with Manjunath BS the Maintenance Engineer and Imran Ali Khan, naturalist of The Serai Bandipur resort. Fresh water is a precious commodity here as it is in the scrub region of the jungle. Jungle Babblers and Bulbuls in their hundreds, made their noisy presence felt, and as I brushed past the bamboo leaves drops of dew wet my arms and blouse.

  

“Look at the deep trench that we have dug along the path,” said Manjunath.“We have to conserve every drop of rainwater that falls here as the hills beyond, prevent the clouds from bringing us liberal quantities of rain. These trenches carry the rain water to ponds and percolation pits which are 10 feet by 20 feet and which are used to recharge our 18 bore-wells.”

 

The base of the pit if filled with a layer of sand and jelly through which the rain water percolates and then goes down to recharge the bore-wells. “We spend 10 to 15 thousand on each pit but we can conserve over 40 thousand litres of water with recharging the pits. Above the sand and jelly we put a layer of leaves and small branches just to prevent the water from getting evaporated,” he says.

 

“Without rain water harvesting most of our bore-wells went dry,” said Imran ,“that is because we are 902 metres above sea level and so our bore-wells go dry even at depths of a 1000 metres. RWH helps to recharge these bore-wells and the channels and trenches help to guide this water run off directly to where it should percolate down into the soil.”

  

“Our resort is spread over 18 acres and we don’t want a drop of the precious rain water to go out of it. So you can see the channels and trenches criss -cross the property and carry the water via pipes under the paths to where it is collected in pits.”

  

The Serai group is very organised and keep a log of the rainwater which has been harvested at the property over the last four years. They require 22 thousand litres per day when the resort is at full occupancy. They even channelise the grey water of baths and kitchens to a Sewage treatment plant, before the treated water, is used to water the garden and the trees.

 

This is the only way forward say both Manjunath and Imran and it is heartening to note that instead of just buying tankers of water and depleting the ground water elsewhere which is the norm in India, the resort has its own RWH system already in place, even though it is barely a year into its operations. For details contact: Coffee Day Resorts Pvt. Ltd., Coffee Day Square, Vittal Mallaya Road, Bangalore, Ph: 4001 2345 or www.theserai.in Marianne de Nazareth

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.