In Mahadevapura, hope streams on RWH success

By: Tarun Kaushik

BENGALURU: While about 80,000 properties in the city are yet to instal a rainwater harvesting (RWH) system, some apartments in Whitefield have demonstrated the usefulness of RWH: they collected lakhs of litres of water from just two days of rainfall.

A social media post by Clement Jayakumar, a resident of Doddanekundi in Mahadevapura, claims that about 10 apartment complexes collected 10.45 lakh litres of water from rainfall on April 16 and April 18. The complexes typically use the water to flush tanks in toilets, gardening, cleaning cars, etc. Speaking of the need for more apartments to adopt the system, Jayakumar says, “During the past few months citizens have faced challenges due to water shortage. Unfortunately, most apartments are either fully or partially dependent on water tankers as many borewells have dried up. Hopefully, by hearing about the success stories, more people will get the confidence to adopt RWH.” Some members of the RWA Doddanekundi Rising, including Jayakumar, have volunteered to showcase the system to members of other apartments to encourage them to adopt it.


Zonasha Paradiso, an apartment complex in Doddanekundi, collected four lakh litres during the two days of rain. Resident Sanjay Agarwal, who is also a volunteer, said the residents are now considering ways to utilise the water in different ways.

AR Shivakumar, principal scientific officer, Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology (KSCST), has had great success with RWH, so much so that he has stopped buying BWSSB water. He harvests water by integrating ways of water storage, including RWH, in his residence, and is also an advocate for RWH. As water is getting scarce, more and more people are adopting RWH, he says.

Shivakumar manages two help desks — collaborative projects of BWSSB and KSCST in IISc — where visitors interested in getting an RWH system are given information and help. “If they bring their house plan, we can design it (RWH system), we can physically demonstrate the working of RWH, we can give estimates of cost and size of tank, and we also have a list of plumbing contractors,” he says.

Urban expert Ashwin Mahesh’s proposal for alternative ways to generate water for Bengaluru, named ‘Mattondu Kaveri’ (another Kaveri), was incorporated in the state budget this year. One of the sources of water generation in the proposal is RWH, which, if installed in 50% of buildings in the city, can generate 150-200 MLD (millions of litres per day) of water, claims Mahesh.

In spite of increasing awareness about the need for RWH, several properties in the city are yet to instal it despite being in a position to afford it. BWSSB engineerin-chief Kemparamaiah says about 1.12 lakh properties in the city have installed RWH, while about 80,000 have not although it is mandated.

From 2016, the BWSSB has been collecting higher tariffs for water from properties that have not installed an RWH system. “Fine collections have lowered in the past few months from around Rs 1 crore to Rs 65-70,000, indicating that more properties are adopting the system,” Kemparamaiah says.