Every year, India gets monsoon rains but we capture less than 10% of it. This is one of the main reasons why more than 70% of our country’s groundwater aquifers have run dry as we are only extracting water from the ground but not putting anything back. This water crisis is impacting more than 60 crore people across India. By 2030, India’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply. Water crisis in Cape Town in South Africa and Chennai in South India are warning signs of what lies ahead unless every Indian becomes water wise.
Environment problems are best sorted if they are tackled at source. We need to respect the rain that falls on our roof top and not let it flow into the gutter. This film shows how an independent house in any city, town or village in India can save lakhs of litres of water during the rainy season every year by a very simple and cost effective way of storing rain water in an underground tank and redirecting the overflow into a ground water recharge pit.
Disrespecting water by not using rain water which we get as a free gift from nature every year and simply allowing it to flow into the drain is criminal when India is facing it’s biggest water crisis. Doing both rain water harvesting (collecting and storing rainwater) and groundwater recharge in every rural and urban house in India will ensure that our country’s ground water levels go up and we do not see day zero conditions when our taps will run dry.
Steps for Rain Water Storage and Ground Water Recharge in an Independent House:
Slope of the rooftop in your house should be towards the drain outlet on the roof so the rain water falling on the roof easily flows to this outlet.
There should be a steel wire mesh put on this outlet which provides the first level of filtration before this rain water goes into the pipe.
Rooftop surface must be kept relatively clean so the water does not collect too many impurities.
A filter should ideally be put to clean this rain water before storing it. You might have to break the wall a little to trace the pipe carrying the roof top rain water down.
Make an underground tank to store the rain water. After the storage tank gets full, the excess rain water can be re-routed to the ground water recharge pit in your house.
Recharge pit can be made by using sand, gravel, pebbles as filtration media.
“We installed the rainy filter in our house and got a 10,000 litre tank constructed to store the rainwater. With the kind of rains we get in Jaipur (in the desert state of Rajasthan), we are able to collect 1,00,000 plus litres of rain water every monsoon which we use for all our household chores during the rainy season (for our drinking water needs after filtering it in the kitchen, cooking, washing, mopping, gardening etc) instead of using municipal piped water or the ground water. This helps to reduce our water footprint in a big way and improve the ground water levels in our neighbourhood,” says Sunil Pachar. For more details, Mr. Pachar can be reached at sunil.pachar@ecolive.in
Water filter installed in Mr Pachar’s house to filter the rain water coming down from the roof A 10,000 litre underground storage tank built in Mr Pachar’s home to store filtered rain water
For more information on rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharge, please visit the following links:
There is nothing more essential to life on earth than water. From Cape Town in South Africa to Asia’s teeming mega cities, the world is in the midst of a huge water crisis. This film and blog talks about how putting water aerators in taps helps to reduce water use by almost 60 percent per tap. In these water stressed times, this simple and cost effective solution should be implemented in every home, institution and office complex across the globe.
Key Attributes of Water Aerators
Size:They mostly come in 3 sizes (16 mm, 20 mm, 24 mm).
Shape:They mostly come in round shape but some designer faucets are rectangular and square too.
Type:They help dispense water in 3 forms (mist, spray, foam).
Flow rate: They have varied flow rates ranging from 2 litres per minute to 30 litres per minute.
How Does One Know Which Type of Aerator to Buy?
Sunil Pachar, Sustainability Consultant who supplies water aerators to individuals, residential communities, corporates and institutions says that aerators must be chosen on the basis of the purpose for which the tap is used. Aerators for wash basins, kitchen sinks, showers are all different. Size of the aerator can be measured by measuring the dimension of the outlet of the tap which your local plumber can help you with. The most common size in case of the bathroom wash basin and the kitchen sink is 24 mm.
People can easily save 20-25% of fresh water in their homes or places of work just by using aerators as per the below recommended specifications:
Wash basins: Spray type aerator with flow rate of 1-4 litres per minute (lpm) as hands can be comfortably washed at this speed.
Dish washing:Foam type aerator with flow rate of 5-10 litres per minute as washing utensils needs more water as compared to washing hands.
Bath showers: Spray type aerator with flow rate of 9-10 litres per minute.
Jet sprays:Spray type aerator with flow rate of 2-5 litres per minute.
Gardening: Spray type aerator with flow rate of 2-5 litres per minute.
Neoperl and Eco 365 are good quality aerator brands. You can order the aerators online keeping in mind the above specifications. Other brands can be sourced online and in local markets as well but quality could be an issue. I personally bought Neopearl water aerators (German based leading global brand) for all the taps in my home and they are working very efficiently. For those who use showers for bathing, please buy aerators for your showers as well. Sunil Pachar, Sustainability Consultant can be reached at sunil.pachar@ecolive.in for help in sourcing the water aerators.
Installing Water Aerators – Effective Water Saving Solution at the Community and Institution Level
You can convince your office management and community resident welfare organisation (RWA) to install water aerators in all the bathroom and kitchen sinks of your office and all the homes in your condominium / township respectively. Raman Chawla, RWA President of Ireo Grand Arch in Gurgaon city says, “Ireo Grand Arch condominium, located off Golf Course Extension Road in Gurgaon is home to 700 families. We have been dependent on getting water from tankers every day as the municipality water lines only meet about 10-40 percent of our total water needs as supply is very erratic. At current consumption levels, residents pay a sum of INR 0.52 per sq ft for water use which works out to about INR 1200 per month for an average size 3 bedroom apartment. As part of the strategy that we devised to reduce our condominium’s water use, our RWA decided to use funds from our corpus to install water aerators in the kitchen and bathroom sinks of all the flats. This simple step of installing water aerators has helped to bring down overall water use per household by 20-25% in Ireo Grand Arch. Buying in bulk reduces the price of the aerators significantly. Our RWA paid INR 80-85 per water aerator for a leading German brand called NeoPearl that we purchased from Mr. Sunil Pachar, Sustainability Consultant who helps condominiums and institutions in doing a water audit and then helps them devise a strategy to reduce their water footprint, build ground water recharge structures etc.”
Feedback
For any comments, feedback or clarifications on this blog, please write to the author Neelam Ahluwalia at this email id: healingourcities1@gmail.com
India is one of the most water stressed countries in the world. Niti Aayog (a prominent Government of India think tank) report of 2018 states that 21 major cities in India (Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and others) are racing towards reaching zero groundwater levels affecting access of water for more than 100 million urban Indians. The reportalso states that by 2030, India’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying severe water scarcity for millions of people. If we want to prevent the water crisis that Cape Town in South Africa witnessed, a decentralised collective approach to water management is the key.
Watch this film to see 15+ practical solutions that different residential communities in Gurgaon city in the water starved National Capital Region have implemented to conserve water. These water saving measures can be adopted by any residential condominium, township, office complex or institution anywhere in India.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BLOG
How to be Water Rich:
Respecting water by following the 4 Rs of water conservation is the only way forward if we do not want to experience day zero conditions when our taps will run dry. This blog details some water smart solutions that residential communities / office complexes / institutions can adopt under each of the below heads:
Reduce Consumption
Reduce Wastage
Case Study showing how a community reduced its water use by 20%
Recycle Grey Water & Sewage Water
Recharge Ground Water (a short video where a water expert talks about how to design community level ground water recharge structures efficiently and a detailed write up on implementation of Swales, a permaculture based ground water recharge technique)
SAVING WATER BY REDUCING CONSUMPTION
Water Meters – “What cannot be measured, cannot be improved.” It is critical to install water meters to determine the amount of water being used on a daily, monthly and yearly basis.
Waterless Urinals – As shown in the Water Rich Communities film, Richmond Park residential complex in Gurgaon has been using waterless urinals in their high usage public areas – club house and common area toilets for the past few years.
Waterless urinals cost approximately INR 5500 per urinal to retrofit but save huge quantities of water from being flushed down the drain.
See these links below and explore using waterless urinals for the men’s common area toilets in your residential community and office complex.
Sprinklers and Shower Handles –Horticulture uses a lot of water. Using sprinklers and shower handles attached to pipes to water green spaces reduces water use by 50%.
Sprinklers which rotate 360 degrees are effective for watering big lawns. The amount of distance and pressure can be adjusted in these sprinklers.Pop up sprinklers are effective for watering smaller green spaces.
Mulching –Putting dry leaves in plant beds and around trees significantly reduces amount of water used for horticulture as dry leaves act as a natural barrier preventing the soil from losing moisture as a result of exposure to the wind and the sun.
Planting Native Species – Planting has to be thought through very well keeping in mind the ecology of the region. In a semi arid or arid landscape, if you plant species which are water thirsty i.e those belonging to a moisture rich climate ecology, then these plants will require more waterwhich is criminal in these water stressed times. For example, in Gurgaon city, it is not water wise to plant Bengali Kadam which is a tree species from the moisture rich Bengal area and thus will require more water. This short film presents the views of Vijay Dhasmana, an ecologist and rewilder who talks about why planting native species of the right ecology is critical from the water availability point of view and how native plantation helps to create more biodiversity rich habitats in urban areas.
SAVING WATER BY REDUCING WASTAGE
Water Audit – This is an essential tool which helps to determine where all the water is being used in the complex, points of water wastage etc. Conducting periodic water audits and addressing the following questions helps in reducing wastage of water:
What is the kind of water wastage happening in our residential / office complex?
Are there any leaking taps, pipes and toilet cisterns?
Do our water tanks overflow at any time?
What mechanisms can we put in place to prevent different kinds of water wastage?
Installing Water Aerators in all the Taps – This simple solution helps to reduce water use by more than 60% per tap. Sunil Pachar, Sustainability Consultant who supplies water aerators to individuals, residential communities, corporates and institutions says that aerators must be chosen on the basis of the purpose for which the tap is used. Mr. Pachar can be reached at sunil.pachar@ecolive.in
20-25% of fresh water can be saved in homes / offices just by using aerators as per the below recommended specifications:
Bath showers: Spray type aerator with flow rate of 9-10 litres per minute.
Jet sprays: Spray type aerator with flow rate of 2-5 litres per minute.
Gardening: Spray type aerator with flow rate of 2-5 litres per minute.
Dish washing: Foam type aerator with flow rate of 5-10 litres per minute.
Wash basins: Spray type aerator with flow rate of 1-4 litres per minute.
Foam type of aerators having a 5-6 litres per minute of water dispensing rate are ideal for kitchen sinks as washing utensils requires more water compared to washing hands.Spray type of aerators should be installed in all bathroom sinks, as water coming out at the rate of 1 to 2 litres per minute is sufficient to wash hands.
Fixing Sensors in Overhead Water Tanks – Veena Padmanabhan, RWA member, Richmond Park complex in Gurgaon shares, “Earlier, there used to be a lot of water wastage in our condominium from overflowing water tanks on the roof tops. Now, after we have installed sensors, when the water tanks are getting full, the indication comes on a panel kept in our maintenance room. Even if the plumbers are busy, any staff member goes and shuts the valve which avoids any water from overflowing in the overhead tanks.”
Reducing Number of Common Area Taps and Switching to Push Taps – “Regulating water use is the key to reducing wastage of water. We figured that there were a lot of non-monitored taps in our condominium which could be opened by anyone (RWA staff members, drivers, part time helpers) at any point of time. We realised that quite often a lot of water would overflow because of some tap being left open by someone, somewhere by mistake. To address this problem of water wastage, we closed 3-4 of the common area taps. In the 2 existing common area taps, we have changed the system to ‘push taps’ to avoid water overflowing from buckets while people get busy chatting with each other,” shares Veena Padmanabhan, RWA member, Richmond Park complex in Gurgaon.
Push taps help in reducing water wastage by water overflowing from buckets.
Prompt Fixing of Leaks – Leaking pipes, taps, toilet flushes are a big source of water wastage. System should be put into place to fix these immediately.
Mandating Designated Time for Car Cleaning – Instead of drivers and car cleaners having access to water taps all day long to clean cars, fixing car cleaning time for 2-3 hours in the morning helps to regulate water use.
Re-routing Water Dripping from Air Conditioners –Water dripping from the air conditioners in buildings is a big source of water wastage. This water can be easily rerouted to the water recharge pits using pipes.
Case Study: Water Management at Ireo Grand Arch Condo, Gurgaon
Water Use Reduced by 20% by following 2 Rs of Water Conservation
Raman Chawla, RWA President, Ireo Grand Arch, Gurgaon shares, “The builder handed over our residential complex to us without there being any piped water supply from HUDA – Haryana Urban Development Authority. The Grand Arch, located off Golf Course Extension Road in Gurgaon houses around 700 families and we have been dependent on getting water from tankers every day. HUDA water lines were connected to our condominium in June 2019 but they just meet about 10-40 percent of our total water needs as supply is very erratic. As a result, our dependence on water tankers remains high. At current consumption levels, residents pay a sum of INR 0.52 per sq ft for water use which works out to about INR 1200 per month for an average size 3 bedroom apartment.”
A Water Conservation Committee comprising of residents and RWA members was set up to study all possible aspects to reduce the huge water expenses being incurred by the residents. A detailed audit was carried out by the RWA and it was decided to monitor consumption patterns and plug-in wastages. Grand Arch has been helped by a Sustainability Consultant – Sunil Pachar, who helps RWAs, Corporates and Institutions to carry out water audits, suggests measures for water conservation and helps with the implementation of the same. Mr. Pachar can be reached at sunil.pachar@ecolive.in
Following water conservation measures based on reducing water wastage and consumption were implemented by Grand Arch RWA:
Water aerators have been installed in all the sinks in the bathrooms and kitchens in all the flats using RWA funds. According to Sunil Pachar, Sustainability Consultant who supplied the water aerators to Grand Arch, “Every RWA should adopt this extremely effective water saving approach. This simple step of installing water aerators has helped to bring down overall water use per household by 20-25% in Grand Arch. Buying in bulk reduces the price of the aerators significantly. The RWA ended up paying INR 80-85 per water aerator for a leading German brand called NeoPerl. Neoperl (www.neoperl.net) is the market leader with about 70% of the market share. The other players are too small and do not offer the diversity of water aerators that Neoperl provides. Moreover, the quality of Neoperl aerators is far superior as compared to other brands,”
The water audit pointed out that leakages in the basement were major contributors to water being wasted in the complex. Steps were taken to plug in all the leakage points.
All the gardeners in the complex have been trained to (a) use showers/sprinklers while watering the green spaces (b) stagger watering timing in summer to early morning/late evening to avoid wastage through evaporation.
All defective garden sprinklers have been repaired or replaced.
Members of the Water Conservation Committee have been sensitising the residents by sending e-mails/whatsapp messages, putting up posters on notice boards in different towers and the club house and by involving children who have been doing ‘Nukkad Nataks’ during cultural events and painting competitions on the critical importance of reducing wastage and consumption of water.
House-maids have been trained to save water since they participate in all the cleaning chores like washing utensils, clothes, mopping floors etc.
Measures were also taken to rectify the sewage treatment plant (STP) which was not working at the desired level of performance.
According to Raman Chawla, RWA President, Ireo Grand Arch, Gurgaon, “All these measures have translated to a tangible 20% i.e. 30 lakh litres of water saving within our condominium. There is however a definite scope of further improvement. Our RWA is currently in the process of exploring all available options to reduce water usage by installing smart metering systems which will help our residents to monitor and reduce water consumption at their home level. Another critical thing that we need to look into is ground water recharge.”
SAVING WATER BY REUSING AND RECYCLING
Can this water be given one more life?Can it be used one more time before it is finally drained out? These are powerful questions that help to flip our approach to the way we look at water management. All you need is some investment in piping or plumbing to reroute the water to reuse the same.
Reusing Swimming Pool Water for Horticulture – “We do not let any drop of water go waste in our complex. Even the swimming pool water is re-routed every year at the end of the season to the community garden using a pump. This water is used by the gardeners for watering the green spaces instead of just being drained. Our plants have survived the chlorinated water without any problem!”, shares Veena Padmanabhan, RWA member, Richmond Park complex in Gurgaon.
Using Recycled Grey Water and Treated Sewage Waterfor Horticultureare 2 extremely water smart solutions as the water saving on an everyday basis is huge as your community or office complex or institution is not using thousands of litres of fresh water for this purpose. As water availability in Indian cities goes down over the next few years, using treated grey water (waste water from baths, sinks, washing machines) and black water (sewage water from toilet flushes) is the only way, residential and office complexes would be able to maintain their green spaces. According to Sunil Pachar, Sustainability Consultant, “Water recycling is very cost effective as the cost of water recycling works out to around 4-5 paisa per litre as compared to the huge cost of withdrawing water from the ground which is depleting at alarming levels in most Indian cities.”
Grey water recycling is really easy to implement as it just requires a tank to be built below the building to collect the water coming from the bathroom wash basins, shower areas and washing machines. This tank needs to be cleaned once in 15 days. A simple pre chamber can be built using small pebbles, carbon blocks and alum which helps in avoiding any smell issues.
Silver Oaks complex in water starved Gurgaon recycles 50,000 litres of grey water every day & so doesn’t use any fresh water to maintain its green areas spread over 14 acres.
Surbhi Iyer, Eco Team Member from Silver Oaks shares, “Total cost of setting up 9 grey water recycling tanks with a capacity of 5000 litres per tank came to approximately INR 3,60,000 (INR 40,000 per tank x 9 tanks). We built 9 tanks over a period of 5 years so it was not a drain on the RWAs financial resources.”
Researchers from Bangalore have shown that recycling and reusing grey water for gardening, flushing, cleaning cars etc in a residential complexreduces almost 70% of the total fresh water requirement. The study was carried out at ‘T-Zed Homes’ residential complex which saved almost Rs 10 lakh per annum in fresh water bills and reduced its groundwater withdrawal.
Grey water recycling is an eco-friendly, economical and effective way of providing water security to every residential and office complex in India. Countries such as Japan are using grey water recycling extensively to overcome their water deficit. Using small treatment plants and closed-loop water supply system at the building level, Japan reuses more than 53 million litres of water every single day.
Garden Estate, Gurgaon set up a 75,000 litres per day sewage treatment plant (STP) in 2010 at a cost of INR 20 lakhs. This treated sewage water is used to water 23 acres of green area.
“While using STP water, an important precaution that needs to be taken is to use the treated water within 24 hours. If it is stored for longer, issues of smell can come in. In such a situation, it is best to re-filter the water before using it for horticulture,” shares Keshav Jaini, Eco Team Member from Garden Estate.
SAVING WATER BY RECHARGING GROUND WATER
‘Will our children and future generations get water to drink’ is the thought that should motivate every community, office complex and institution to invest in constructing rain water recharge structures. Currently in India, we barely recharge 10% of the rain water. In urban areas, rain water recharge is negligible. With so much concretisation in our cities, there is hardly any place for the rain water to sink in and it leads to water logging in all our streets across urban India every monsoon. This needs to change. Groundwater recharge needs to be taken up on war footing in all our towns and cities if we do not want to face ground zero situation when our taps will run dry.
Ground Water Recharge Structures – From a community / office / institution perspective, what are the things to keep in mind while designing an efficient rain water recharge structure that will allow maximum percolation of rain water into the ground? This video presents the views of Sunil Pachar, a Sustainability Expert working in the area of providing water management solutions to RWAs, corporates and institutions. Mr. Pachar can be reached at sunil.pachar@ecolive.in
Swales as shown in the Water Rich Communities film are trenches dug on gently sloping land / natural drains / storm water drains (nallahs) to capture rain water so that it is absorbed in the ground rather than let it flow out of the area which would then be lost in drainage.
Swales are typically 2 feet wide X 2 feet deep in a continuous S shape which helps to slow, spread and sink the water in the soil.
The permaculture principles at work in swales are called the 3S: Slow it, Spread it and Sink it. The swale is blocked at every 10 feet or so using wooden logs or sand filled bags to further slow and collect the rain water thereby allowing only the overflow to go to the next trench. Soil holding, filtration plants can be planted in the swale to help more water to sink in. Organic brown material in the form of dry leaves and wooden branches from the horticulture waste can be added to make the soil more porous. The worms and microbes start acting on this carbon material. As it decomposes and becomes mulch in the ground, it helps to open the soil below, thereby making it easier for the water to seep into the ground.
Adding carbon material in the swale helps to increase the porosity of the soil thereby sinking more water into the ground.
Typically, the site where you want to dig the swale has to be assessed and studied for soil, slope, erosion, porosity and the flow, volume and speed of water. It is important to study the water coming in. If the water is too polluted, a natural filtration process using plants or filtration media (stones, pebbles) should be created. Please note that soil is a natural filter and will clean the water as it gets absorbed.
Keshav Jaini, Eco Team Member, Garden Estate, Gurgaon shares, “In our residential complex, we already had several rain water recharge structures made in 2002. We implemented the swales project to capture the rain water flowing out of our estate in the storm water drain. We have created individual trenches of 2ft X 2ft over a length of 150 feet. The total holding capacity of the entire swale is 600 cubic feet which can hold about 17000 litres of water. Initially, when it starts raining, the soil is dry and so the rain water seeps in very quickly. Once the soil absorbs the initial rush of water, the absorption rate becomes slower. In one normal 30 minutes rain, we collect and sink about 25000 litres of water in the complete swale. Time taken for the water to sink in ranges from 1 hour to 3 hours. If it rains again after 3 or 4 hours, the swale is again ready to absorb another 25000 litres. We calculated that in the month of August 2019, when we had 12 rounds of monsoon rains, our swale helped us recharge about 300,000 litres of water (25000 litres x 12 rains) into the ground. This is a very economical, ground water recharge solution. All we spent was INR 5000 as labour cost for digging the swale. The whole project is completely natural helping to regenerate mother earth in multiple ways.”
For queries and guidance on implementation of swales techniqueas a ground water recharge solution,please contact: Mr. Keshav Jaini, Garden Estate, Gurgaon at this email: keshavcj@gmail.com
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For any comments, feedback or clarifications on this blog, please write to the author Neelam Ahluwalia at the email: healingourcities1@gmail.com
Healing Our Cities 