Biome Environmental Trust has implemented a rainwater harvesting system at Marasur Government Higher Primary School to address severe water scarcity affecting local schools in Sarjapur. The project revamped the school's water infrastructure, replacing leaking sumps and enhancing sanitation facilities, while involving the community in maintenance and education efforts. Following new interventions, the school has experienced improved water access for students, reducing reliance on borewell water and fostering a sense of ownership among students and staff.

1. Rainwater Harvesting in Marasur School
Biome Environmental Trust (Biome) has worked in and around Sarjapur (a hobli within
Anekal taluk) with a particular focus on groundwater in the region. The taluk is under severe
water stress and has been classified as overexploited by the Central Ground Water Board
(CGWB). People in this area are still largely dependent on groundwater, either through their
own borewells, panchayat water supply or tankers extracting groundwater from
somewhere close by.
This situation has had a particularly high impact on the government schools in the region.
These schools go through a daily struggle to access water in a reliable way. While some of
them have borewells, many depend on the local Panchayat for the school water needs and
on the nearby RO plant for drinking water needs. Moreover, the water and sanitation
infrastructure in these schools needs upgrading in many instances.
Similar to the availability of midday meals enabling student retention, reliable access to
water and sanitation is also an important factor in enhancing the student experience and
making them feel welcome at the school premises.
Rainwater harvesting (RWH) can go a long way in solving this water situation. Wipro Cares,
in partnership with Biome, embarked on a project to implement rooftop RWH and improve
the water infrastructure in seven government schools in this area.
Marasur School - Existing infrastructure and Issues related to water supply and sanitation
The first school selected for this implementation was the Government Higher Primary School
in Marasur. This co-educational school has a combined student strength of 186, with 6
teachers and 2 support staff. The main requirement for water in this school is for hand
washing, plate washing and toilets. Since Akshayapatra provides midday meals, there is no
water requirement for cooking purposes. The total daily water requirement is around 4,000
to 5,000 litres. There is a borewell located on the school premises from which water is
drawn and stored in two sumps and overhead tanks. However, one of the sumps had
started leaking due to the invasion of roots from a nearby large tree. Repair of this particular
sump had been attempted many times in the past, but the leakage problem always recurred.
The other sump was functional but was small in size (2,500 litres). Hence water had to be
pumped up to the overhead tank of the students' toilet at least twice a day, which is quite
inconvenient. To add to this, there was another overhead tank on the old kitchen block,
which didn't have a direct connection from the underground sump. Hence water had to be
transferred to this tank through a hose pipe from the overhead tank of the toilet block
manually every day.
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2. Existing infrastructure of the school
Interventions
Biome designed a rainwater harvesting system to capture the water from the terrace area
(427 sqm) of the main block. The system consists of downtake pipes which channel the roof
water to a masonry filter, after letting out the first few mm of rain, which cleans the roof.
The filtered water is subsequently led into an underground sump. It was decided to abandon
the leaking sump along with the smaller sump near the toilet block. A new sump of 12
Kilolitres (KL) was constructed. The sump size was designed considering the rooftop
catchment area to capture a rainfall of 30 mm. A recharge well 4 feet in diameter and 20 feet
in depth with a static volume of 7 KL was dug near the borewell, which receives the overflow
from the 12 KL sump in case of rainfall of more than 30 mm. The rooftop runoff from the
pre-primary block is also connected to the recharge well. This serves the purpose of
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3. recharging the underlying shallow aquifer and, in the long term, will be beneficial to the
borewell yield. After the recent rains, it has been observed that this recharge well has
started to hold water at a depth of around 5 feet below ground level, which is planned to be
used for gardening. A new pump was installed to take the stored water to the overhead
tanks of the students' toilet block and the old kitchen block to supply hand washing, and the
overhead tank on the main block to cater to the staff toilet and drinking water needs. Also,
the supply from the existing borewell line has been extended to the new sump, so that in
the summer, the new sump can be filled with borewell water.
Interventions in the school
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4. Overview of existing infrastructure and Interventions in the school
Rainwater downtake pipes, first rain separator (FRS), prefilter to underground sump and overflow to
recharge well
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5. Handwash area
First rain separator (FRS), filter and underground sump
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6. Recharge well holding water
Going beyond the initial mandate of rainwater harvesting, Wipro Cares and Biome also
reviewed the overall water infrastructure at this school, including the sanitation facilities.
Though there is a separate block for the students’ toilets at this school, the pipeline towards
the soak pit was broken, and hence the sewage water was back-flowing. This problem has
been rectified, by fixing the broken pipeline and cleaning the soak pit.
We wanted this project to be a collaborative exercise involving all the stakeholders, so that
especially the school students and staff get a sense of ownership of their rainwater
harvesting system going forward. Right from the design stage and during the
implementation stages also, inputs were taken from students and teachers. These inputs
were considered for the design and implementation of the overall RWH system.
After the terrace rainwater harvesting system was implemented, a water literacy session
was conducted at this school for the students and staff. The session covered various topics
such as the local water cycle of a school, rainwater harvesting in a school, water demand
calculation, water demand management and maintenance of the installed RWH system.
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7. Session on water literacy and maintenance of RWH infrastructure
Another aspect we noticed was the handwash infrastructure. There were only three taps for
washing hands and plates after meals. This created a bottleneck, and students had to get in
line after each meal to access these few taps. Also, since there was no washbasin to collect
the used water, it would splash onto the students every time they used the taps. The
teachers informed us that it would take nearly an hour for all the students to finish up,
obviously eating into the study time. To address this problem, a solution has been arrived at
to install additional taps, along with a raised washbasin which will channel the used water in
a controlled manner to the outside area. This infrastructural addition is expected to be a true
time saver.
In addition, a waterproofing & reflective paint is being applied to the main building block
terrace. This will help in avoiding any seepage into the classrooms and also keeps the
classrooms below cooler by reflecting the maximum heat during peak summer.
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8. Statements from students/teachers
Manjula - who helps in housekeeping and also maintenance of the RWH system
“Earlier, we used to switch on the pump for filling the OHT twice or more a day, and also we
had to use a hose pipe to fill the OHT for handwashing. With the new RWH system, things
have become easy for us. With the good rains recently, we have been able to sustain with
rainwater giving a break to our borewell. Also, we open the first rain separator after every
rain to let out the unclean water, take out the leaves, if any, from the pre-filter regularly and
clean the terrace every alternate day to be able to capture clean rainwater in our sump“
Hitesh - teacher - toilet issues and resolution
“Our students, especially the girls, were facing a lot of inconveniences while using the
toilets. After fixing the broken pipeline and cleaning the soak pit, the situation has improved
a lot”
Nagaratna, HM - about recharge well, and how water from there can be reused
“We were relying only on borewell water. We did not expect that the new recharge well
would hold water. We are surprised and happy that there is water available in the well, and it
can be put to use for gardening, growing vegetables and fruits”
Sridhar, Parent
Mr Sridhar is a parent of a student and is actively involved in the maintenance of the school.
He says, “ The quality of rainwater from the sump is very clean, and we are using it for all
purposes except for drinking. Few other school staff and residents from the surrounding
area have also visited our school to see the rainwater harvesting system setup and have
shown interest in implementing it at their places”.
Narashimha, 6th standard student
“We use the rainwater for toilets, handwash, plate wash and school cleaning purposes and
the use of borewell is reduced due to availability of rainwater”
Students and teachers
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