Rain Water Harvesting at Palm Grove Apartments
While acknowledging the fact that water is an important resource, it is about time we take a serious look at where we stand and do our best to conserve and restore it. One such stand is the restoration of our ground water by Rain Water Harvesting (RWH). Most of our societies have RWH systems inbuilt into its infrastructure, but has been in neglect or we choose to be ignorant of.
Thus, we at Palm Grove Apartments, a society of 110 Flats, conducted a survey of our society and were pleasantly surprised to find a RWH system in existence. From there on, it was only a matter of understanding the pipeline network, de-clogging the mouth of the pipelines from the roof, following the path of the water to the Rain water manholes, joining into the Rain water pipeline laid under the driveway, which had its own perforated manholes to collect surface rain water run-off, that ultimately led to the RWH pits. The process was simple, with the use of air pressure pumps and circulatory water pressure systems, all the pipelines were cleared of years of sludge, enabling free flow of water to the RWH pits. The pits themselves (H10xL20xW8 feet) were also clogged, having 3 feet of sludge. Further the central perforated bore pipe filled with gravel and sand, funneling the water to reach the water table was also blocked. An extensive cleaning process of taking out almost 5 trucks of sludge and then cleaning the central bore pipe with high pressure air and water was undertaken, so that the water once entering into the RWH pits could easily filter and the find its way to the ground water, thus adding to the restoration of the water table.
The RWH project once completed, it got tested thoroughly by the season’s first major rain on Thursday, 27 June, and came through with flying colors. Almost all of the rain from the roof lay off and the society driveway, found its way along the RWH pipeline to the RWH pits. On inspection of the pits, it was found that the collected Rain water had seeped through the central bore pipeline and found its way towards the ground water.
Fueled with this success and hoping to share the experience and knowledge gained, so that it may be help other societies, Palm Grove Apartments conducted a Workshop and guided tour of its RWH process, on 30 June, at its premises and also invited the consultant/contractor for a Q&A session.
In attendance were people from various society RWAs such as Crescent, ATS Hamlet, Sector 93A, ATS 2, Amrapali Silicon City, Overseas Apartments, Shubhkamna Apartments and NOFAA officials. Apart from a very informative and interactive discussion, the takeaways were: (1) Rainwater Harvesting was the need of the hour, given the depleting water table level in Noida. (2) Most societies would have a RWH system already; it only has to be revived. (3) It is not as cost intensive as one is given to believe, starting from as low as Rs 30,000 to clean the RWH pits to under 1.5 lakhs to clean and make operational the complete RWH system of a society. The workshop was adjourned with the hope that many more societies will come forward and take the initiative to implement or revive their RWH systems.
Sludge removing after desilting the rainwater lines.
