Rainwater Harvesting And Groundwater Recharge In Urban Centres Experiences From The Field: Biome Solutions

Rainwater Harvesting and groundwater recharge In urban centres – experiences from the field Avinash Krishnamurthy, Nathan Stell, Shubha Ramachandran, Sunil M S, Karan Singh Biome Environmental Solutions Pvt Ltd (Rainwater Club)

The Urban Context

Bangalore gets its water from the Cauvery 95 kms and 500 meters below the city Bangalore

Bangalore need : limitations • Production cost of water is very high at Rs 24 a kilo-liter. • Ceiling on the availability : 1,500 mld. Good enough for 7 million people only i.e. by the year 2011. • Surface and groundwater on the decline.

Water supply and sources in Bangalore • Piped water supply : Current Demand : 1,500 Million Litres per Day Investment Rs.60,000 million ($ 1500 million) Supply : Around 900 MLD Shortage covered by : Ground Water !!! • Rainwater : 3,000 Million Litres per Day Rs. “0.00”(zero) ? Can a better balance be reached ??

Peripheral and Ribbon growth

Urban Water Markets !

Case Studies Working in the residential contexts

Jyoti Meadows Apts 44 households, 33KL/day demand Source: Utility supply, tankers and borewells Motivation for RWH: Increase in connection size from utility After RWH New Sources: Rooftop water, Shallow Aquifer Roof area: 700 sqm Rainfall endowment : 6.7 million liters / annum (200 days of demand)

11,000 litre rainwater tank – Catchment roof area of 700 sqm – overflow to well Recharge/Open Well – 3ft dia, 15 ft depth – Well yielded at around 10ft.

Shallow aquifer at 10ft depth !!! • Earlier used only borewells/tankers • Now Rainwater and shallow well water • Rainwater tank used as multi-storage Borewell depths : 600 ft, yields not measured, not metered Shallow aquifer water (cheapest: Rs 3 / KL) Now new source of water – yield around 500 litres per pumping - summer 1000 litres per pumping - monsoon Recuperation 4 days during summers 2 days during monsoon

Tata Sherwood 376 households, 200KL/day demand Source : Borewells – 6 of them Motivation for RWH: groundwater dependence Roof area: 11000 sq m Rainfall endowment : 10.6 million liters/annum (53 days of demand)

Existing storm-water tanks

Borewell Details: Not being used currently due to “motor” problems 650 ft in depth, 6 inch dia Recharge Details: Well around borewell – 7ft dia, 22 ft depth (capacity approx 20,000 lts) Borewell casing perforated – so direct aquifer recharge Recharge rate: 20,000 litres / hour ! Need to monitor impact on water quality and yields of other borewells !

Rainbow Drive Location Sarjapur Road, Bangalore – Ground water stressed area Size 34 acres, approx 350 plots, 220 occupied Details Currently governed by Plot owners association (Society) since 2002. No BWSSB connection Dependent on Ground water ( owned bore wells)

•Increasing water insecurity – borewells drying up. •Community as a whole not aware of the problems – wasteful consumption •Water Tankers not reliable. •Flash flooding at entrance during heavy rains •STP output water stagnating at entrance drains Entrance: Prone to Flash Floods during Rain

WATER SUPPLY - SOURCE Currently Yielding Borewells Currently 3 such borewells, one of them low yield. Over last 6 years 3 Borewells completely dried One in this photo was highest yielding borewell Around 2 years back – now totally dry. …….and Individual homes calling Tankers when layout supply not enough!!!

INTERVENTIONS – FOUR PHASES Phase Purpose Activities Results Phase I Problem diagnosis, Data collection, Water literacy and Getting people on communication to problem statement board people Phase II Ground water and Sourcing expertise, Kick off of RWH at Demand Implementation of HH and collective management RWH level Phase III Ground water and Finalising new Second phase of Demand Tariff regime, RWH and New Tariff management continued regime investment in RWH Phase IV Waste Water Yet to start Intended to improve management treatment and reuse waste water for landscape

Currently used borewells Currently un-used borewells Overhead Water towers Recharge structures: Orange dots – 3ft * 10ft recharge wells Red dots – 3ft*20ft recharge wells Blue dots – 5ft * 30 ft recharge wells 55 Wells in 34 acres 1,98,000 litres of holding volume

Recharge Well – Three types Wells in Storm water drains Wells inside the House Wells in Storm water drains invested in by RWA invested in by House hold (individual Investment) (Collective Investment) (Just outside the house - individual Investment)

Demand Management : Household RWH Only about 20 houses so far covered – lots to go

Every household connection METERED !!!!

Demand Management : Revised Tariff Regime New Water Tariff Policy – Increasing block tariff based on production costs (Rs 16 – 17 / KL) understood during Phase I Consumption slab Tariff 0 – 10 KL Rs 10/- 10 – 20 KL Rs 15/- 20 – 30 KL Rs 25/- 30 – 40 KL Rs 40/- > 40 KL Rs 60/- • Households invested in recharge at Household level get Rs 100/- discount on bill! • Monthly Billing, not Bi-monthly any more ! • Rs 10/- per day fine for late payments ! • No supply of water to construction sites!

Monitoring Thanks to the Arghyam Foundation, Bangalore, Biome has now just begun a comprehensive monitoring exercise with the RWA to : 1. Monitor and Document impact of interventions over 1 year 2. Evolve a Best Water Management practices document for layouts 3. Evolve “List of Questions housing consumers should ask developers”

Summary of key metrics @ current occupancy @ full occupany (65%) Demand (220 lpcd) 200 KL/day 300 KL/day 84 ML per annum 127 ML per annum Total rainfall endowment 133.23 ML per annum 133.23ML per annum Rainfall runoff on rooftops 47 ML per annum 72 ML per annum (60% land use) Rainfall runoff from roads 20 ML per annum 20 ML per annum (25% land use) Per capita roof area 61 sq m / capita 59 sq m / capita Per capita road area 39 sq m / capita 24.5 sq m / capita Currently no treated waste-water reuse Current garden areas are water intensive (lawn based)

Learnings – Three dimensions People’s participation Process Knowledge

People’s participation • Mixture of short-term self-interest, longer-term collective interest & “green thinking”. Laws help. • Collectives around property boundaries – best scale of intervention seems at the (HH level + RWA level) – better catchment control • Tend to equate RWH with Borewell recharge • Collectives have “champions” who drive the whole process. The champions role is very critical. • Characterized by low water literacy

Process • Direct dialogue with community • Collectives have “champions” who drive the whole process. The champions role is very critical. • Urban citizenry characterized by low water literacy. The process is one of increasing “water literacy” • Need to integrate services into the process for intentions to convert to actions

Knowledge Challenges : • integrate many knowledge streams • Human capital along the entire chain – from dialogue to implementation Learnings : • Best is the enemy of the good • Opportunity for new knowledge generation

Biome Environmental Solutions Pvt Ltd and Rainwater Club water@biome-solutions.com www.biome-solutions.com 1022, 1st floor, 6th Block, HMT Layout, Vidyaranyapura, Bangalore – 560 097, Phone : 080 41672790

A Large premier educational institution

Learnings Questions for discussions People’s participation, What should the legal framework be? What should the institutional framework scales of be? decentralisation, What are the financial sustainability issues? Knowledge and What do social constructs such as RWA Services delivery mean for the above ? Integrating Knowledge of different types, What is the technical framework ? What is the overall framework for using the opportunity ecological understanding? for continuous new knowledge generation

Water Water Club House Common areas : Roads, bore wells, Tank Tank Water tanks, STP, Club house etc Water Softener STP Borewell 3 Borewell 2 Borewell 1 1. Developer buys land 4. RWA formed after critical occupancy 2. Developer develops infrastructure 5. Transfer of ownership of common areas to RWA 3. Developer markets to consumers 6. RWA completely takes over management. Developer leaves the scene

RECHARGE WELL - SCALABLE & PLUGGABLE

PIONEER SPEAK “ An Organized Minority is a political Majority – Jesse Jackson • Few people with conviction can provide the spark to mobilize the inactive majority in the community. • Analytical approach to price resources accurately and reward conservation and penalize wastage is critical • Non-interference from government, empowerment of the community to manage its resources is the key ” -Jayawant Bharadwaj Management Committee member and Key driver of RBD’s Water Reforms

The Media loved this story… • “Water supply bottom up” on http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/ • The Times of India, Vijaya Karnataka, The Hindu, Live Mint • Four part Series of “How to achieve RWH in IUWM context for Gated Layouts” in http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/ • Featured in the TV by local kannada channels

The Team Mr Nathan Stell, Mr Vishwanath S, Biome, Biome, lead investigator Mentoring and Guidance Of the Monitoring Exercise at RBD Mrs Shubha Ramachandran, Mr Sunil M S, Project Manager, Biome Project Manager, Biome The design and implementation of RBD was anchored by Shubha and Sunil Mr Chitti Babu and Mr Mr Muniyappa and his Well Digging Narayanaswamy and their team Mrs Chitra Vishwanath and the Plumbing Teams Architecture team at Biome !!!

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Rainwater Harvesting And Groundwater Recharge In Urban Centres Experiences From The Field: Biome Solutions

by India Water Portal on Jun 03, 2009

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Rainwater Harvesting And Groundwater Recharge In Urban Centres Experiences From The Field: Biome Solutions — Presentation Transcript