Bountiful ‘rain’ for colony

Bountiful ‘rain’ for colony
DH News Service Bangalore:
Deccan Herald, in its series Catch Rain, is introducing citizens who have successfully adopted rain water harvesting system.

Residents of Beedi Workers’ Colony, off Outer Ring Road in Kengeri wouldn’t have been able to live in their houses had they not harvested rain water. With just two borewells to feed 200 houses, rain water harvesting was a godsend for them.

To address the water problem, in 2001, Bangalore City District Beedi Workers’ Co-operative Society (association of residents) approached Karnataka Council of Science and Technology (KCST) which offered to implement the community-based rain harvesting system in six of the 15 blocks in the colony. Each block consists of six houses.



Details

The Deccan Herald team which visited the colony found rain water falling on the rooftop of every block was collected through pipes and connected to a concrete tank.

A ‘pop-up filter’ (a new technology used for filtering rain water) is connected to the pipe.

The tank has a tap in front, where residents collect water for all non-potable purposes.

Society President Afroz Pasha said the residents get free water for over three months every year and there’s no problem of flooding in the area during rainy season. Initially, when residents were asked to contribute to the project, they were reluctant, but now residents of other blocks are demanding the system and ready to pay as well.

While KCST shared 90 per cent of the project cost, beneficiaries contributed 10 per cent.