1. Rainwater Harvesting and groundwater recharge
In urban centres – experiences from the field
Avinash Krishnamurthy, Nathan Stell,
Shubha Ramachandran, Sunil M S, Karan Singh
Biome Environmental Solutions Pvt Ltd
(Rainwater Club)

2. The Urban Context

3. Bangalore gets its water from the Cauvery 95 kms and 500 meters below the
city
Bangalore

4. Bangalore need : limitations
• Production cost of water is very high at Rs 24 a kilo-liter.
• Ceiling on the availability : 1,500 mld. Good enough for 7 million
people only i.e. by the year 2011.
• Surface and groundwater on the decline.

5. Water supply and sources in Bangalore
• Piped water supply :
Current Demand : 1,500 Million Litres per Day
Investment Rs.60,000 million ($ 1500 million)
Supply : Around 900 MLD
Shortage covered by : Ground Water !!!
• Rainwater :
3,000 Million Litres per Day
Rs. “0.00”(zero) ?
Can a better balance be reached ??

6. Peripheral and Ribbon growth

7. Urban Water Markets !

8. Urban Water Markets !

9. Case Studies
Working in the residential contexts

10. Jyoti Meadows Apts
44 households, 33KL/day demand
Source: Utility supply, tankers and
borewells
Motivation for RWH: Increase in
connection size from utility
After RWH New Sources:
Rooftop water, Shallow Aquifer
Roof area: 700 sqm
Rainfall endowment : 6.7 million
liters / annum (200 days of
demand)

12. 11,000 litre rainwater tank – Catchment roof area of 700 sqm – overflow to well
Recharge/Open Well – 3ft dia, 15 ft depth – Well yielded at around 10ft.

13. Shallow aquifer at 10ft depth !!!
• Earlier used only borewells/tankers
• Now Rainwater and shallow well water
• Rainwater tank used as multi-storage
Borewell depths :
600 ft, yields not measured, not metered
Shallow aquifer water
(cheapest: Rs 3 / KL)
Now new source of water – yield around
500 litres per pumping - summer
1000 litres per pumping - monsoon
Recuperation
4 days during summers
2 days during monsoon

14. Tata Sherwood
376 households, 200KL/day
demand
Source : Borewells – 6 of them
Motivation for RWH: groundwater
dependence
Roof area: 11000 sq m
Rainfall endowment : 10.6 million
liters/annum (53 days of demand)

15. Existing storm-water tanks

16. Existing storm-water tanks

17. Borewell Details:
Not being used currently due to “motor” problems
650 ft in depth, 6 inch dia
Recharge Details:
Well around borewell – 7ft dia, 22 ft depth (capacity approx 20,000 lts)
Borewell casing perforated – so direct aquifer recharge
Recharge rate: 20,000 litres / hour !
Need to monitor impact on water quality and yields of other borewells !

18. Rainbow Drive
Location Sarjapur Road, Bangalore – Ground water stressed area
Size 34 acres, approx 350 plots, 220 occupied
Details Currently governed by Plot owners association (Society)
since 2002.
No BWSSB connection
Dependent on Ground water ( owned bore wells)

19. •Increasing water
insecurity – borewells
drying up.
•Community as a whole
not aware of the problems
– wasteful consumption
•Water Tankers not
reliable.
•Flash flooding at entrance
during heavy rains
•STP output water
stagnating at entrance
drains
Entrance:
Prone to Flash
Floods during
Rain

20. WATER SUPPLY - SOURCE
Currently Yielding Borewells
Currently 3 such borewells,
one of them low yield.
Over last 6 years 3 Borewells completely dried
One in this photo was highest yielding borewell
Around 2 years back – now totally dry.
…….and Individual homes calling Tankers when layout supply not enough!!!

21. INTERVENTIONS – FOUR PHASES
Phase Purpose Activities Results
Phase I Problem diagnosis, Data collection, Water literacy and
Getting people on communication to problem statement
board people
Phase II Ground water and Sourcing expertise, Kick off of RWH at
Demand Implementation of HH and collective
management RWH level
Phase III Ground water and Finalising new Second phase of
Demand Tariff regime, RWH and New Tariff
management continued regime
investment in RWH
Phase IV Waste Water Yet to start Intended to improve
management treatment and reuse
waste water for
landscape

22. Currently used borewells
Currently un-used borewells
Overhead Water towers
Recharge structures:
Orange dots – 3ft * 10ft recharge wells
Red dots – 3ft*20ft recharge wells
Blue dots – 5ft * 30 ft recharge wells
55 Wells in 34 acres
1,98,000 litres of holding volume

23. Recharge Well – Three types
Wells in Storm water drains Wells inside the House
Wells in Storm water drains
invested in by RWA
invested in by House hold (individual Investment)
(Collective Investment)
(Just outside the house -
individual Investment)

24. Demand Management : Household RWH
Only about 20 houses so far covered – lots to go

25. Every household connection
METERED !!!!

26. Demand Management : Revised Tariff Regime
New Water Tariff Policy – Increasing block tariff based on
production costs (Rs 16 – 17 / KL) understood during Phase I
Consumption slab Tariff
0 – 10 KL Rs 10/-
10 – 20 KL Rs 15/-
20 – 30 KL Rs 25/-
30 – 40 KL Rs 40/-
> 40 KL Rs 60/-
• Households invested in recharge at Household level get Rs 100/-
discount on bill!
• Monthly Billing, not Bi-monthly any more !
• Rs 10/- per day fine for late payments !
• No supply of water to construction sites!

27. Monitoring
Thanks to the Arghyam Foundation, Bangalore, Biome has now just
begun a comprehensive monitoring exercise with the RWA to :
1. Monitor and Document impact of interventions over 1 year
2. Evolve a Best Water Management practices document for layouts
3. Evolve “List of Questions housing consumers should ask developers”

28. Summary of key metrics
@ current occupancy @ full occupany
(65%)
Demand (220 lpcd) 200 KL/day 300 KL/day
84 ML per annum 127 ML per annum
Total rainfall endowment 133.23 ML per annum 133.23ML per annum
Rainfall runoff on rooftops 47 ML per annum 72 ML per annum
(60% land use)
Rainfall runoff from roads 20 ML per annum 20 ML per annum
(25% land use)
Per capita roof area 61 sq m / capita 59 sq m / capita
Per capita road area 39 sq m / capita 24.5 sq m / capita
Currently no treated waste-water reuse
Current garden areas are water intensive (lawn based)

29. Learnings – Three dimensions
People’s participation
Process
Knowledge

30. People’s participation
• Mixture of short-term self-interest, longer-term
collective interest & “green thinking”. Laws help.
• Collectives around property boundaries – best
scale of intervention seems at the (HH level +
RWA level) – better catchment control
• Tend to equate RWH with Borewell recharge
• Collectives have “champions” who drive the
whole process. The champions role is very
critical.
• Characterized by low water literacy

31. Process
• Direct dialogue with community
• Collectives have “champions” who drive the
whole process. The champions role is very
critical.
• Urban citizenry characterized by low water
literacy. The process is one of increasing “water
literacy”
• Need to integrate services into the process for
intentions to convert to actions

32. Knowledge
Challenges :
• integrate many knowledge streams
• Human capital along the entire chain – from
dialogue to implementation
Learnings :
• Best is the enemy of the good
• Opportunity for new knowledge generation

33. Biome Environmental Solutions Pvt Ltd
and Rainwater Club
water@biome-solutions.com
www.biome-solutions.com
1022, 1st floor, 6th Block,
HMT Layout, Vidyaranyapura,
Bangalore – 560 097,
Phone : 080 41672790

34. A Large premier educational institution

36. Learnings Questions for discussions
People’s participation, What should the legal framework be?
What should the institutional framework
scales of be?
decentralisation, What are the financial sustainability
issues?
Knowledge and What do social constructs such as RWA
Services delivery mean for the above ?
Integrating Knowledge
of different types, What is the technical framework ?
What is the overall framework for
using the opportunity ecological understanding?
for continuous new
knowledge generation

37. Water
Water
Club House Common areas : Roads, bore wells, Tank
Tank
Water tanks, STP, Club house etc Water
Softener
STP
Borewell 3
Borewell 2
Borewell 1
1. Developer buys land 4. RWA formed after critical occupancy
2. Developer develops infrastructure 5. Transfer of ownership of common areas to RWA
3. Developer markets to consumers
6. RWA completely takes over management.
Developer leaves the scene

38. RECHARGE WELL - SCALABLE & PLUGGABLE

39. PIONEER SPEAK
“ An Organized Minority is a political Majority –
Jesse Jackson
• Few people with conviction can provide the
spark to mobilize the inactive majority in the
community.
• Analytical approach to price resources
accurately and reward conservation and
penalize wastage is critical
• Non-interference from government,
empowerment of the community to manage its
resources is the key ”
-Jayawant Bharadwaj
Management Committee
member and Key driver of
RBD’s Water Reforms

40. The Media loved this story…
• “Water supply bottom up” on http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/
• The Times of India, Vijaya Karnataka, The Hindu, Live Mint
• Four part Series of “How to achieve RWH in IUWM context for
Gated Layouts” in http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/
• Featured in the TV by local kannada channels

41. The Team
Mr Nathan Stell,
Mr Vishwanath S, Biome, Biome, lead investigator
Mentoring and Guidance Of the Monitoring Exercise at RBD
Mrs Shubha Ramachandran, Mr Sunil M S,
Project Manager, Biome Project Manager, Biome
The design and implementation of RBD was anchored by Shubha and Sunil
Mr Chitti Babu and Mr Mr Muniyappa and his Well Digging
Narayanaswamy and their team Mrs Chitra Vishwanath and the
Plumbing Teams Architecture team at Biome !!!