Where implemented, rainwater harvesting has made a difference

PUNE: In 2002, when colonel Shashikant Dalvi decided to settle in Vimannagar after his retirement, he did not foresee the acute water shortage the area was going to face. While his residential society did have its own borewell, the yield was of less than half an hour. The society was forced to purchase as many as three tankers every day in summer, running up monthly bills of nearly Rs 30,000.
That was when Dalvi decided to try out rainwater harvesting, an idea he had seen implemented during his service years in areas of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, but practically unheard of in Pune.
"I was looking for guidance to set up the project, but not much was forthcoming. With a little bit of theoretical information as a starting-point, I took my society's management committee into confidence and installed the first phase of the rainwater harvesting project in May 2002 on 3,000 sq ft, which was one-fourth of the total roof-top surface we had, with a system to directly inject the collected water into our borewell," he said.
The rain gods obliged the very next month, and with the replenished groundwater table, the society's tanker requirement reduced by 50%. Encouraged, the society decided to implement the project on the remaining 9,000 sq ft as well. "We have not called for a single tanker after 2003," Dalvi said. The borewell's recharged groundwater has ensured a daily yield of more than nine hours now.
A local hero by then, Dalvi started spreading awareness about the benefits of rainwater harvesting to others in the city. "It is the need of the hour and a logical and simple solution to the city's problem of water shortage," he said.
Since 2003, Dalvi has conducted numerous awareness campaigns about the ease and benefits of implementing rainwater harvesting. While it started with nearby societies, the movement gradually spread to the city's schools, colleges, hospitals, social clubs and even political parties, across other cities too, including Mumbai, Buldhana, Satara, Akola and Amravati.
Bhaskar Bhatlekar, who lives on Apte Road, said they installed the rainwater-harvesting system in their society in 2012. "We had to think of an alternative when the regular water supply from the civic body and six additional tankers in a month too proved insufficient for the 19 apartments. The idea of rainwater harvesting appealed to all of us instantly. While we are told that real benefits will accrue only after two years, we felt it is a worthwhile investment," he said.
A hospital in the heart of the city also turned to Dalvi in 2008 when they faced acute water shortage. "The water supply from the civic body was insufficient and we were purchasing more than 900 additional tankers every year. Our bore well too had almost dried up. With guidance from Dalvi, we installed the rainwater harvesting project on our site and managed to collect and refill our bore well in the monsoon. Since that year, all our water needs are met from our own well. We now order less than 100 tankers a year, that too only on days when there is a declared water cut," said Prashant Bachal, deputy manager of maintenance at the hospital.
Bachal said the water-routing achieved by their RWH installation was a cost-effective decision year on year and has also ended up benefitting adjoining properties because the groundwater table has risen.
Tangible benefits notwithstanding, Dalvi admits that it is difficult to convince people to spend money on implementing rainwater harvesting. According to him, many societies have not done it despite the civic body making rooftop rainwater harvesting mandatory for all new buildings that have come up since 2007. "Everyone wants to dig bore wells, but you need to recharge the aquifers," he said.
According to Dalvi, there are more than 7,000 bore wells and close to 1,000 open wells in the city. "The groundwater level is decreasing at an alarming rate of 3-5 meters every year. Rainwater harvesting must be implemented on a war footing and it requires the participation of all stakeholders__ from builders and societies to flat owners and even industries," he said.
Rajya Sabha MP Vandana Chavan said harvesting rainwater is beneficial not just for meeting immediate demand for water, but for replenishing the groundwater and for maintaining the green cover.
"Many cities have shown that it is possible to solve the water problem with rainwater harvesting. With the groundwater table fast depleting, we need to make it compulsory by law if we have to reverse the damage," she said.
Chavan points to the lethargy in dealing with projects related to rainwater harvesting. "Before I became an MP, I had got the MLCs to allot funds for installing rainwater harvesting plants in three ward offices in the city. However, because of the unresponsive and apathetic working of the civic administration, timely work was not done and the funds eventually lapsed," she said.
Awareness of the benefits of rainwater harvesting must be spread not just among housing societies and residences, but also among industries, panchayats, zilla parishads and municipal corporations, she added.