A Sunday Morning Well Spent

 

Residents of Rainbow Drive and Royal Placid - both gated layouts off Sarjapura Road exchange their water stories. Ground water recharge has benefited Rainbow Drive greatly and they share their stories with a lot of warmth and empathy with the Royal Placid residents. Royal Placid is all set to embark on their RWH trip

Wat'er we Doing - Water Workshop for Children

Hard at Work - posters

Presentations

Interactive session with Mr Vishwanath

The Banner

Poster in Kannada

Informal chat  during snacks break

A week long workshop on "Bangalore and its Water" for about 20 children from various schools organized by the CMCA. Pictures from the first day of the workshop

Visit to ferns paradise

                                                     Visit to Ferns Paradise

                                                   Doddanekundi, Bangalore.

Date of visit: 07/05/2012
Aim: To check the recharge rate of the borewells ( which have not been used almost since 5years because it is not yelding enough water.)
 Borewell 1 : on 6th street
 Borewell 2:  on 2nd street.

Current plan: To convert the dried up borewell as recharge structures by supplying it with rain water. This is done by allowing water from the recharge well through the recharge structure (helps in filtration) and the water seeps into the aquifer and can be used whenever needed.

How is it done?
Recharge wells: Circular structures which have a diameter of 3-5ft (1-1.5m) and is approximately 20ft deep. The rain water is allowed to stand, such that the silt settles down.
 The water form here is sent to the recharge structure which is present around the borewell pipe.The recharge structure is filled with aggregates of different sizes and acts as a purifer. The borewell pipe is perrforated at a height half way from the recharge structure (this way the water would have passed through the soil filters in the recharge structure) and then enters the borewell through the perforation which is covered by net one mesh.
  This water then reaches the aquifer which will help to replenish the surrounding borewells and can be drawn up with the help of a borewell pump.                           

• To check the rate of absorption :

Water Level Indicator used to measure the depth of water

A tanker was called and the water was directly sent into the borewell.

Water suppied from the tanker

                                                                              

The readings for the rate of water receding was as follows :

Borewell 1:  For 10mts it took 2mins
                     For 16mts it took 4mins 22 sec
                     For 17.5mts it took 7 mins.
             It took 20mins to absorb 3000lts.

                                             
Borewell 2: All the water was absorbed at once. Approximately 4,500lts was absorbed in 12mins.

                                               
.
     Hence among the two canditates the proposed plan will be implemented to the 2nd borewell.

Report - Visit to Government Girls School, Vijayapura.

  

Project Details: 

Date of inspection: 28/04/2012

Location: Government Girls School, Vijayapura, 14kms away from Devanhalli, Bangalore Rural.
Current problem faced by the school:  Government not supplying adequate water to meet the needs of the school.
Date of starting construction for the project: 26/04/2012
Expected date of completion : 12/05/2012
Project sponsored by: Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions
Planned and designed by : Biome Environmental Solutions.
Current Plan: Project engineer Mr. Ramkrishnappa says the current plan is to collect rain water from the terrace of the entrance building.

 

entrance of the school

 Pipes are laid in in a fashion such that pipes to the right of the building are smaller in diameter and goes on increasing in diameter (because the volume of water increases).

existing pipe to the right of the building

pipes to the left of the building

Mr.Ramkrishnappa and Karan checking the location 

These pipes are connected to an underground sump of 10,000 litres and the water is stored there.

sump under construction

This water is later pumped to the overhead tank. This water is used in the washrooms for the students and other purposes.

  Some of the water is stored in the ground level tank (of 5,000 litres) and the water from here is mainly used in the kitchen for cooking [For cooking mid-day meals. Mid-day meals : Food cooked at the school. An initiative by the Government of Karnataka for the welfare of the students, which are provided even during holidays]  , washing utensils, etc.

                                                                                  
                                                                                                   -Photos and text by :
                                                                                                       N.Bhargavi

An electricity meter Made in Greece

The idea was to get BBMP to recharge common borewells in common areas. In the process of identifying these borewells in a layout Off Haralur Road came across this electricity meter "Made in Greece" !! Ever wondered where electricity meters are made ? Carefully look into the Electricity Meter picture to notice the "Made in Greece"

RWH at Dandiganihalli village

A group of volunteers from Canada came down and helped build a rainwater harvesting system in a government school at Dandiganihalli village, rural Karnataka. Representing "Operation Groundswell" (www.operationgroundswell.com) they approached us through Asha and Tim of Animus Consultancy and Services, Bangalore.




Sanjana, Tammy, Adrianna and Rachael: Some of the volunteers





The government primary school at Dandiganihalli village, Karnataka

The school itself has a very poor supply of water in terms of quantity and quality. Supplied only every 3-4 days teachers say that the water is too "salty" to be used for drinking and cooking, in other words it has a high content of minerals.

To cook the mid-day meals, school staff actually source water from surrounding neighbours who in turn get their water from outside borewells which are not so "salty" - there is no sustainable drinking/cooking water supply to this school.



The volunteers from Canada chose to build a rooftop rainwater collection system since this would go a long way in alleviating the plight of the school children and staff. Kids currently bring their drinking water from home while instead they could easily drink rainwater. More over a study has shown that the groundwater is afflicted with fluoride, so even the "sweet" tasting water is in effect contaminated.

In such a scenario substituting the regular water supply with rainwater will yield great benefits. For one, the school staff and cooks do not need to go outside the school to get water for cooking, since they will have stored rainwater right in the school itself.
Secondly, even the students can drink rainwater and be saved from the ill effects of consuming fluoride contaminated water.


Playtime at Dandiganihalli Government Primary School

Our main work was building the rainwater tank and it took us 8 days to do this, along with all the other work.
The first 3 days were spent just digging a hole in the ground.. a large one! This was about 11 feet long by 9 feet wide and 6 feet deep and would prove to be the resting place for our final sump tank.


Start digging















Rachael..happy to be carrying mud :)


Once the digging finished, the team began work on the filter and also started building the actual storage (sump) tank for which there was a lot of brick laying involved.







Rainwater filter










Sump tank foundation and first course of bricks









Mr Ramakrishnappa - the key point person for this project









At work








After a hard days work




Alongside laying the bricks, we began work on the piping ie connecting all the roofwater pipes in a way that they finally lead to the sump tank. For the given roof area of 200 sq mts, the appropriate sump tank size that we built was 10,000 litres.

Once the bricks were done, the sump tank was plastered from the inside with a coat of water proof plaster and finally we cast the cover. To make a cover, the workers prepared a temporary support called as "centering" and covered this with layers of paper, cement and wet cow dung. On top of this was poured wet concrete. The cow dung played an important role in ensuring that the concrete we poured did not "bind" with the supporting structure below.





Almost done








Sump tank cover - applying cow dung







By the eighth day we had finished pretty much all the work including painting the filter. On 24th June, the school arranged for a small farewell function where various locals expressed their thoughts and gratitude for the project. Mr Vishwanath of the Biome Trust spoke about the project and demystified rainwater harvesting for the kids. The students on their part put up a small dance program and gave gifts to the volunteers.. all in all a fun evening!







Painted filter







Operation Groundswell India

Rain water and fun with children at the Ramachandra Mission

Sri Ram Chandra Mission in Banashankari had organized a 3 day summer camp for about 80 children (7-14 years). The theme for the camp was "Nature and I" and we interacted with the children on the subject of water. Farmland Rainwater Harvesting brought in their van with a working model of the rainwater harvesting system. Interacting with children was fun - we spoke on all topics - water, sewage, treatment systems, cost of water, conservation, lakes - the same stuff that we speak about to the adults too. It all seemed to make perfect sense to them as well.

We also went around the campus - identifying the sump, borewell, downpipes, possibilities for rainwater harvesting, water bill. Its always much nicer when you are outdoors - seeing stuff - moving around. Should put together (already exists for the most part) a small/easy do-it-yourself model for demonstrating a sand filter, tippy tap and ground water recharge.