To celebrate World Water Day (March 22nd), BWSSB, Bangalore Jalamandali Abhiyantara Sangha, Arghyam and Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology had jointly organised "Rainwater Harvesting Mela" at Jawahar Bal Bhavan, Cubbon Park on March 20th from 10:00 am to 5 pm.

This came just a few weeks before BWSSB’s deadline to implement rain water harvesting in buildings. The deadline is May 27th 2010.

This mela could be ranked as one of the biggest ever initiative by BWSSB to spread awareness about Rain Water Harvesting (RWH).

Many queries of citizens were patiently and elaborately explained by AR Shivakumar, scientist and Principal RWH investigator at the Science and Technology Council. Few of the important points covered were:

• BWSSB has trained over 1000 plumbers and contractors for RWH. Their contact numbers and details are available at their helpdesk.

• Any plumber other than the trained plumber can be used to implement the system. Even individuals can put the system in place by themselves.

• Sites where the ground water levels are very high (water at 3-4 feet) need not do ground water recharging. They can collect Rainwater and use it instead.

• A combination of Roof water collecting, groundwater recharge and recharge of non- yielding borewell methods can also be used.

• Rainwater is pure. It might get dirty because of dust, bird droppings and mud on the roof top. Filters are used for this reason when collecting rain water. Most times, rain water is drinkable.

• If the sump is air and light tight, stored water does not get spoiled. Making sump air tight can be difficult, but if care is taken to block sunlight entering the sump, water stays good for years.

• Recharged ground water from your site may not necessarily flow into your borewell directly. It will help in increasing the locality’s ground water level.

• An empty well of 10 feet (minimum) depth, and 2.5 feet width can be used for recharging ground water. It can be left as it is. No need to fill the tank with sand or pebbles. Variations in depth and width of the well can be made in consultation with the BWSSB officials.

Rain water harvesting has been made compulsory for all residential and commercial properties by BBMP.

The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Amendment Act, dated August 25, 2009 states "Within nine months from the date of commencement of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage (Amendment) Act, 2009, every owner or occupier of a building having a site area of 2400 square feet and above, or every owner who proposes to construct a building on a site area of 1200 square feet and above, shall provide for rainwater harvesting structure …"

BWSSB warns that for buildings failing to abide by this law before the deadline, water supply and sewage connections are liable to be turned off. For new buildings, water connection will not be given if the proof of RWH system installed is not shown.

About 150-200 people were present during the question answer session. There was mixed reaction from the assembled citizens about installing the system. Few felt that it was for their own good to go for this and there were few who did not want to go through the extra cost of installing this. Haggling with plumbers was the main point of discussion among people.

One gentleman even posed a question, "Why can’t the government collect the rooftop rainwater from every house and store it in a central place and then distribute the same"?

Shivakumar repeatedly assured that it was a simple system and the water collected is good enough to be used throughout the year, if stored in the right manner. He has been using RWH system at his home in Vijayanagar from past 15 years and his home does not have a BWSSB/corporation water connection. Also, his home was constructed with harvested rainwater.

Explaining the harvesting system, Mr Shivakumar. Pic: Divya Sharma.

BWSSB stall. Pic: Divya Sharma

RWH system stalls. Pic: Divya Sharma

‹
›

$(document).ready(function(){ $(‘.carousel .carousel-inner .item’).first().attr(‘class’, ‘active item’);}); 

Stalls of various RWH installers were put up and people thronged the stalls. Many stalls displayed small models of how RWH works. Also on display were the special filters/ pop up filters. People visiting the stalls felt that it was high time they install RWH systems and reap the benefits of the average good rainfall in the city. BWSSB had a display of RWH model and various visuals about the advantages of RWH and how it is imperative that we use rainwater.

For extensive information and resources on rainwater harvesting in Bengaluru, visit BWSSB and Waterday websites.⊕