Rainwater Harvesting at Urdu Higher Primary School

Urdu Higher Primary School is located in Vijaypura town near Devanahalli. The student strength is 208. There are 6 teachers and 4 non-teaching staff.

Biome Environmental Trusts’ interaction with the school started with this conversation with the school HM, Zakira Ma’m: The supply to our school is through tankers. But many a times that is not enough. Though we have overhead tanks, and adequate storage system, with the lack of plumbing and motor to pump the water, there is not enough water in the toilets. I am interested in Rainwater harvesting because this water can be used for toilets. Plumbing is needed for further connections to the toilet. That’ll be a useful step for the school.” We realized the school’s keenness and necessity of RWH as well as appreciated her willingness to take ownership of the system.

The system components are as follows:

Water from the rooftop is diverted to a 1000L syntex tank. 

 

The school had separate sumps for drinking water and toilets. The harvested water from the syntex tank is connected to the sump which is being used for toilets. Plumbing connections were made from the existing sump to the overhead tank and further to the toilets. Since the teachers were concerned about vandalism, syntex tank is provided with a wire mesh. Look closely, and one can also see the pipe from the syntex tank covered in mesh as well. 

Prima facie this engagement with school may look as 'design and implementation of RWH system'. However, for us RWH is an entry point into the schools' issues-about water, about sanitation, about finances, etc. While the RWH execution was happening in the school, we realized that the handwash is in a dilapidated condition and it may become non-functional in coming days. This needed fixing! So, along with RWH implementation and connections to the toilets, handwash was fixed too.