Amidst the prevailing water disaster, a household in Bengaluru is making waves by successfully addressing their water wants with out counting on a borewell or water from the Cauvery river. By utilizing rainwater collected and saved from the earlier 12 months’s monsoon, Rohit Malekar and Suma Raj are usually not solely beating the scorching summer time temperatures but additionally nurturing a flourishing backyard boasting over 350 crops.
In an period the place residents are coping with acute water shortage and blistering warmth, their family serves as a beacon of inspiration, providing precious insights for different households dealing with related challenges.
Whereas insufficient rainfall in 2023 is blamed for exacerbating the current water disaster in Bengaluru, specialists imagine rainwater acquired within the metropolis (an annual common of 800 mm) ought to suffice to serve its water wants if correctly conserved by means of rainwater harvesting and recharging.
However regardless of rainwater harvesting being obligatory for big properties within the metropolis, Bengaluru drains away 90 % of its rainwater squandering a possible resolution for the water disaster that has been impacting the each day lives of its residents.
Nearly all of Bengaluru’s water necessities are at the moment met by means of the Cauvery river (60 %) and groundwater sources (40 %).
Let’s be taught extra about their water conservation efforts from Rohit and Suma.
Making each drop depend
Suma grew up in South Bengaluru, Karnataka, the place conservation and sustainable dwelling have been very a lot a part of her day-to-day life. Round 20 years again when groundwater recharging and photo voltaic panels weren’t obligatory, her father had a self-designed rainwater harvesting (RWH) setup put in of their dwelling.
So, when Suma and Rohit determined to construct their dream dwelling, they aspired to create an environmentally pleasant dwelling too.
The couple was impressed by their son’s college, designed by Chitra Viswanath. They have been additionally impressed by The Higher India article that highlighted Chitra and her husband S Vishwanath’s work for sustainable houses. So Suma and Rohit determined to prioritise water conservation initiatives once they constructed their very own dwelling in Royal Placid Format, Haralur.
Whereas their neighbours depend on drying borewells, Suma and Rohit opted for roof-based rainwater harvesting in the course of the building of their 2,000 sq ft dwelling in 2020.
“We learnt that even borewells as deep as 1,000 toes in our locality went dry over time. This was the rationale we selected to not drill a borewell. Apart from, we nonetheless depend upon water tankers because the Cauvery water provide is inadequate. This dependency will increase throughout summer time with the Cauvery water provide lowering to one-fourth of its common amount,” Rohit tells The Higher India.
So, the couple determined to reap rainwater for non-potable functions like cleansing, bathing, and gardening wants, aside from ingesting and cooking. This ensures they’re unaffected by the depleting groundwater ranges.
Rainwater meets half of the household’s annual water wants. “Each monsoon, we save as much as 35,000 litres of rainwater. We use the harvested rainwater for cleansing and gardening functions. Whereas, we use the Cauvery water as soon as every week and tanker provide thrice a month for kitchen, bathing, dishes, and laundry functions, and water cans for ingesting wants. We’re a household of 4 and rainwater takes care of half of our annual water wants,” he shares.
Sustaining backyard with 350 crops amid water disaster
Nearer to their rainwater harvesting tank, the couple has maintained a lush inexperienced backyard of 350 crops comprising decorative, flowering, succulents, handfuls of greens, herbs, and ayurvedic crops.
Apart from cleansing and different home functions, RWH tank water can be used to satisfy their gardening wants. The backyard requires about 150 to 175 litres of water each day.
“More often than not we draw water from the RWH tank to water these crops. Moreover, we manually re-purpose about 25 litres of water from the kitchen — leftovers from cooking and washing — for gardening,” he provides.
Regardless of the price range constraints, Suma and Rohit invested Rs 4.2 lakh in putting in the RWH setup, which required digging, masonry, waterproofing of the tank, and plumbing.
“There was by no means a time after I doubted investing Rs 4.5 lakh in RWH. We tried our greatest to construct a sustainable home with none express expectation of return on funding to the extent we may afford it,” Suma tells The Higher India.
“Alongside this, we additionally invested in photo voltaic panels and compressed mud blocks for the whole home that provide the satisfaction of adopting barely sustainable decisions. We additionally want utilizing buckets over showers for bathing. We even have aerators for a lot of the taps,” she provides.
Regardless of making efforts in direction of water conservation on the family degree, Rohit and Suma really feel they aren’t doing sufficient. “Nevertheless, there’s a sense of reduction that we took steps in the fitting route however way more might be completed. I imagine we want a plurality in options to deal with water shortage and RWH is a low-hanging fruit. I prefer it as a result of it’s decentralised, doesn’t have a single level of failure, and a few variations like groundwater recharging aren’t terribly costly,” says Rohit.
In response to him, lower than 20 % of the properties with water connections have carried out rainwater harvesting; and fixing the water disaster in Bengaluru would require a number of options.
“Water conservation entails dedication and funding by way of cash, time, and actual property. Additionally, within the present fast-paced metropolis life, the place we rely quite a bit on home assist to run day-to-day chores, it’s arduous to seek out help workers who’re obliged to undertake related practices to assist preserve. Therefore, it’s simpler stated than completed,” he says.
“However what is required is to pay attention to the choices accessible for reducing environmental affect after which make an informed alternative based mostly on private context, sources, and wishes,” suggests Rohit.
Sources
Water famine in Bengaluru?: by A Ravindra for Deccan Herald, Revealed on 11 March 2024.
Harvesting a success, however B’luru lets 90% of rainwater go waste: by Sneha Ramesh for Deccan Herald, Revealed on 3 October 2023.
‘Bengaluru can change into worse than Cape City if mismanagement of water continues’: TV Ramachandra: by Sanath Prasad for The Indian Specific, Revealed on 4 April 2024.
Edited by Pranita Bhat.
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