Rainwater harvesting

If the outside of the Cubbon Park metro station is devoid of colour, step inside and the station is anything but colourless. On an outside wall of the station is an end-to-end monochrome mural depicting tree trunks and children climbing them. Step inside, to the concourse next to the tracks, and the eye cannot help but catch the large colourful mural that captures the essence of what lies under the sprawling Cubbon Park---a massive groundwater recharge system. The theme that defines the artwork spread across the entire metro station. “The idea is to make water practices in the city visible,…

With the severe water scarcity in Bengaluru, a large number of residents have to buy water, more so during summers. And due to indiscriminate digging of borewells in the rush to find water, the city's groundwater has been overexploited. But the efforts of many Bengalureans in rainwater harvesting (RWH) already show the way ahead for the city. Currently, Bengaluru is the Indian city with the second-highest number of RWH installations (1.55 lakh), next only to Chennai. Highlighting such efforts, and discussing how to amplify these, was the focus of a webinar jointly organised by BWSSB (Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage…

Monsoons are here and who doesn’t have happy memories of the fragrance of the first rain bringing along with it the much-needed relief from the weary heat of the Bengaluru summer. But then, along with memories, rains also bring inconveniences like localised flooding in urban areas and increased commute time!  In recent years, we see many Bengalureans struggling to access water during the summers. And one wonders where all the excess water from the rains disappeared.  Data shows that Bengaluru typically receives the highest rains in the months of August, September, and October. With August not too far away, now…

Bengaluru’s water woes are not a secret to anyone, all thanks to the city’s water activists and environmentalists who have fought tooth and nail to promote Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) and sustainable water management in the city. Two well known names campaigning for water sustainable are Vishwanath Srikantaiah and Shubha Ramachandran, both from the Biome Environmental Trust. Vishwanath is a water activist and an urban planner. He has worked in collaboration with the local communities to revive 10,000 wells with the support of the well-diggers, and helped in the development of 100,000 recharge wells. Shubha is a water sustainability expert. She…

There can be no dispute over the fact that the frequency, intensity and spread (new cities getting affected) of urban floods is increasing in India. The reasons are mostly known: increasing and mostly unplanned urbanisation, rural-urban migration, encroachments of water bodies, concretization of flood plains and other lands, decreasing capacity to hold, store, recharge and drain the rainwater, increasing rainfall intensities with changing climate, wrong operation of big dams and deteriorating governance. The damages are going up, also because our forecasts are far from reliable, accurate, location-specific or with sufficient lead time. Because of our incapacity to learn lessons. Disaster…

In the past few years, most borewells in our apartment The Greens had gone dry due to depleting groundwater levels. We are a 10-year-old apartment community in east Bengaluru, off Outer Ring Road, with 171 flats spread across four blocks. We also have a swimming pool, a small clubhouse and a gym. Our water expenses had skyrocketed, and we had to increase our maintenance charges regularly to cover the cost. So in early 2018, we implemented three measures - water metering, reusing treated water, and rainwater harvesting (RWH) - to reduce our water use. The outcome was that our water…

Construction of a recharge well in progress. Pic: Biome In 2018, Raghuram C G, a software program manager at Adobe, got a recharge well dug in his plot in Vidyaranyapura. “Rainwater falling in the plot gets channelised into the recharge well. The 15-ft well is now filled up to 10-11 ft, and has around 2000 litres of water. I’ve been building a house in the plot, and water from the well is used for all construction needs.” Raghuram built the well after being inspired by ‘A Million Wells for Bengaluru’ movement. The design firm Biome Environmental Solutions, along with the…

"You ain’t gonna miss your water until your well runs dry": Bob Marley Why did Indo-Aryans move towards Indus Valley and then to the Ganges Plain? Why did Dravidians settle near rivers? There may be several reasons. But, with the water crisis we are facing, I think we now know the answer - water. Civilisations flourished where water was available. The clock is ticking, and we need to do what is vital for our survival - save water. According to news reports, our city may turn uninhabitable in the next few years due to rapidly-depleting groundwater levels. Rainwater harvesting (RWH)…

Pune’s No 1 ranking in the Ease of Living index contrasts sharply with ground realities, especially when one considers the most basic requirement of all, water. Despite recording one of its heaviest rainfalls this season (561.8 mm, according to Dr Anupam Kashyapi, Head, Weather & Air Pollution Monitoring Unit, India Meteorological Department), and the district’s four dams -- Khadakwasla, Panshet, Varasgaon, and Temghar -- being nearly full, the city is facing a shortage of water and inequitable supply. “In our area, we have seen flooding in some societies while we queue up for drinking water”, said a distraught Arvind Vichare…

ON JUNE 18th, Upper Vaitarna, one of the few lakes that provide water to Mumbai, hit zero. Appeals of saving water trickled across the city and the Brihanmumbai Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) assured citizens that it would dip into its safety stock in other lakes. When monsoon finally arrived, it came with the decade’s highest 24-hour rainfall. Mumbai was flooded; trains, buses and flight services disrupted; and 32 people dead.   But no one was surprised. “It happens every year. A couple of days ago we barely had any water and now the city is waterlogged,” Prashant Patil, a resident of…