Saving precious water costs as little as Rs 400

Saving precious water costs as little as Rs 400
Bangalorean Creates Rainwater Harvesting System
Jayashree Nandi | TNN

Bangalore: What does it take to save thousands of litres of rainwater? A meagre Rs 400.
A Bangalorean has debunked politicians’ theory that one needs to go to other states to study implementation of the rainwater harvesting. M Rajamurthi, an LIC agent, has created his own unique rainwater harvesting system at his house. And his guide was the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board(BWSSB).
After two to three trials, Rajamurthi was successful in making a model that saved him over 10,000 litres of rainwater this monsoon.
Rajamurthi and his family were using a borewell and Cauvery water for their water needs before he was struck with the idea of creating a rainwater system for himself. “I was shocked that ministers were going abroad to learn this technique. It is not a complicated one. All I spent on the pipes and filters was Rs 400 and that has saved me so much of water,” he said.
What Rajamurthi did was to pick up an anniversary book of BWSSB that had several models of rainwater systems. He read the guidelines in detail and tried implementing them. But the first model did not work. On a second trial, he got it right.
“I used two kinds of filters — a 150 micron screen tea filter and a bucket tea filter. The water slopes from the terrace into a pipe and comes down to the filter. The solid residue settles at the bottom of the filter and water gushes up into the bucket where it filters again. The filtered water then comes down through a pipe and is collected in the underground sump,” explained Rajamurthi.
For drinking purposes, 25 members residing in the threestoreyed house are still using Cauvery water, but Rajamurthi says that rainwater has been purified enough to be used for drinking as well. The terrace area is 30 by 40 feet, which fulfils the description specified by BWSSB to come under mandatory rainwater systems.
BWSSB chairman P B Ramamurthy will visit Rajamurthi’s house soon to see the model. On his part, Rajamurthi plans to start an NGO by employing around 10 plumbers who would be trained in making the system. Then he would fix it at other houses for Rs 100. “I have already fixed the system at four other houses and some houses at Bidadi and Ramanagaram,’’ he said.
IT’S MANDATORY
It usually costs between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000 to make rainwater harvesting system on roofs
The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage (Amendment) Bill 2009 makes rainwater harvesting measures mandatory in buildings. Both new and old buildings, houses or apartments need to have the system in place within nine months