Seeing is Believing : BIOME organizes a trip to Rainbow Drive

Rainbow Drive, a layout on Sarjapura Road spread over 34 acres now has 320+ recharge wells of varying sizes (the highest density of recharge wells in Bangalore - capable of recharging a minimum of 1.3ML of water per rainfall event). Continuous and intensive ground water recharge has resulted in the shallowest borewell of 250ft yielding over 1 lakh litres of water per day . The layout is mostly self sufficient for its water needs and is able to guarantee 20KL per month to all households - this, in an area where most other residential localities are buying water.  The achievement of the community has been way more than just raising the funds to create the infrastructure for rainwater harvesting.

Introduction of an intelligent water tariff and several knowledge sessions with residents has resulted in a community that is very responsible with its water and which is also fairly aware and proud of what it has achieved. BIOME helped catalyse this process in 2008 with help from key residents in this layout by conducting the first knowledge session around RWH and digging the first 10 recharge wells

Pictures below document the visit of key Water Experts from across India (from ACWADAM, Arghyam, WASSAN, Megh Pyne Abhiyan) that are working on Participatory Ground Water Management. There is deep acknowledgement from the Water Experts of what the community has achieved. Only a visit to the layout can tell you the complete story - Seeing is Believing

The first well that was dug -
now holds some water

Muniyappa and Pedanna - 2 well diggers

6ft diameter and  40ft deep well
- 32,000 litres

Not many people are digging wells this
size in Urban India

Well digging in progress

Thats how rings are lowered

A recharge well - but with Pulley and the works -
waiting to fill up with water - HOPE

In the DNA: "Bangalore and Its Water" by Vishwanath

A very simply and succinctly written article by Vishwanath Srikantaiah on how Bangalore used to get its water, the current state of water management and what would be a wiser way to manage water in the future
The full article is here
So What If Pipelines dont give Water. Skies do

Words of Praise - from the Earthian Community

BIOME Trust put in significant effort into conceptualising and putting together the resources for this year's Water themed Earthian Programme.  All the Booklets and Videos that were put together as resources are here . We are glad to share words of acknowledgement from the Earthian community

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Dear Shubha, Vishwanath,

Wanted to share a quick note of thanks for all the great work done on the Water Activity booklet and also the support in making the videos… please do share this with others from Biome who helped out on this.

Both these were very central to this year’s earthian program. They were both well used by the participants and there are many words of feedback and thanks from the schools in having such a set of resources. One such feedback is below:

On Wednesday, 13 November 2013 4:33 PM, Jayanthi Sridhar (CBSE) <jayanthi.sridhar@kumarans.org> wrote: Dear Shaheen Thanks.One person called back from the earthian team and clarified my doubts,after I sent you this mail. Students who worked hard on this have really learnt a lot and are thinking  differently ,some have become more eco conscious.Some teams have shown great team work and time management The format this year demanded more time but it's worth it! Kudos to you and your team for putting this together! Dinni :Sorry for the trouble Warm Regards Jayanthi

Muniyappa buys a TATA SUMO

Muniyappa (in white), a well digger known to BIOME for very many years now buys his own TATA SUMO. He says it makes it easier for his team of well diggers to get to work alongwith their tools -  on time. Despite the larger vehicle it is a tight fit for the entire team to get to site. Since he does not know driving he has got a driver who can also double up as a well digger - thereby saving space.  His youngest son (in the checked shirt) has learned to drive the SUMO.

BIOME is delighted to have enabled this and Muniyappa gracious to acknowledge.

Rainwater Harvesting Project Phase 2 in Rashtriya Vidyalaya College of Engineering, Bangalore

Rashtriya Vidyalaya College of Engineering (RVCE) spread over 52.5 acres is located in the Bangalore Mysore road (between Jnanabharathi and Kengeri). There are seven borewells and one open well in the campus area. Due to continuous pumping of the borewells (to the tune of 7-8 hours a day), there is a significant risk of over exploiting the aquifer. The total water consumption of the campus is pegged at around 500 kilo litres (KL) per day of which BWSSB supply is around 40 KL per day and the rest is obtained through borewells.

KPMG, as a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility program identified RVCE for implementation of a rainwater harvesting system. The first phase of this project was executed way back in 2010 with design inputs from Biome The rooftops of three blocks were tapped and directed to a 150 KL sump. This system helped the college in harvesting close to 3 million litres of rooftop runoff annually. Additionally, the overflow from the sump was fed to a recharge well which helped in replenishing the ground water table.

Buoyed by the success of the first phase, the second phase was planned with the intent to increase the quantum of rainwater harvested. This involved tapping rooftops of two hostel blocks (Chamundi and New MV Block) adding up to an area of 2439 sq m. The runoff is directed to two brick masonry filters, whose output is led to a new 50 KL sump. A 3 HP centrifual pump does duty to pump the water from this sump to one of the colleges' existing sump.

The complete system was inaugarated by officials from KPMG on the 23rd October, 2013.

This system has the potential to harvest around 1.6 million litres a year.

The open well in the campus gets the surface runoff of the campus that flows in the storm water drains. Consequently, the well is filled with all kinds of debris and is a picture of neglect in its current state. It is high time that the cleaning up and maintenance of the well is taken up as one of the main action items for the next phase of the rain water harvesting initiative in the college.

Do-it-yourself Workshop for children

Rainwater harvesting is becoming an essential tool for citizens of Bangalore. It is not only a piece of theory now, but has been practically implemented. With studies revealing that Bangalore’s lakes are mostly now sewage lakes and majority of them has just depleted has raised the concern for water to a higher extent. Biome as rainwater club provides the knowledge base for rainwater harvesting, grey water recycling as a part of responsible water management initiative. Raising awareness among people especially kids is also a part of this initiative.

This was a workshop with kids of Adarsh Palm retreat located in Outer Ring Road conducted by Subhomita Ghosh Roy from Biome Environmental Solutions on October 19,2013 from 4.30 to 6 PM. Shreya Vissamsetti a kid of Std. XII was the first one who got interested in this. We made a Tippy Tap and a Rain gauge. Tippy Tap is generally used for handwasing purpose to maintain hygiene and also it saves water while handwasing compared to normal tap water. Rain gauge is generally used for rainfall data recording purpose. A week later a workshop was organized for the kids of Adarsh Palm.

Kids were from 6-14 years. About 16 kids were present in the workshop.

Primarily it was information about water issues, purpose and utility for water management and conservation, rainwater harvesting, grey water recycling and what Biome is doing in this regard. The kids were surprised to know certain facts that were completely unknown to them. For example, they were surprised to know that how deep we need to go for searching and getting water from borewell or how rainwater harvesting is done or the extent it can help us.Next it was the turn for them to make rain gauges on their own. They were asked to get a bottle for the workshop from which they made the gauges pretty easily with the markings on it. They learned when and how this instrument is used. They also saw and used the tippy tap that was made previously. Washing hand under it was a fun experience for them.

The last part of this hour-long workshop was the quiz. There were about 20-25 questions on water awareness, water conservation, water issues in Bangalore and India, rainwater harvesting, water recycling. At the end some gifts were presented to all of them.

Rain Gauge

Tippy Tap

The making

Workshop in Progress

Quiz

Spatial mapping of Fluoride Contamination in ground water in Mulbagal Taluk, KOLAR District

A spatial map created by Ashwin (an intern who worked with us for 2 months) that plots the fluoride levels in ground water (a source of drinking water) in 280 villages in the Mulbagal Taluk. Ashwin personally tested water from each of these sources for monitoring Fluoride levels. It is interesting to see how the incidence of Fluoride is highest in the Western Part of the Taluk. Above 1ppm or 1mg/l is not permissible in drinking water.

48 villages have above 1ppm and 15 villages are critical with more than 3ppm. A portable test kit from Development Alternatives (Jal TARA) put together by the WIPRO Earthian programme was used for the testing

While it is a little clumsy the map has been inserted in full size so that all the village names are visible :)