PM Modi praises this housing society in Pune for solving their water crisis

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Pune, July 3, 2019 : Roseland Residency work in water conservation has been appreciated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet following his call for a nationwide #JanShakti4JalShakti campaign for water conservation in his ‘Mann ki Baat’ program last Sunday. PM Modi tweeted, “Keep up the good work! #JanShakti4JalShakti”

 

Earlier Sidharth Naik had tweeted to PM, “#JanShakti4JalShakti We constructed our first recharge pit to harvest surface water at @roselandresi. pit is around 9 ft x 12ft x 13 ft deep with filter built using big stones, sand along with a network of pipes with holes which is connected to a small sump. @narendramodi”

 

Following this and Paani foundation showcasing their efforts, the society is getting lot of queries for guidance and help about rain water harvesting, ground water recharge.

 

Santosh Maskar, Chairman of Roseland Residency, Pimple Saudagar, Pune shared his experience on Paani Foundation Facebook page, of how they remedied the #watercrisis situation that hit their society.

 

The Main Problem
Roseland Residency was founded in 2006. Our society comprising 982 flats, 3700 residents, 34 buildings first experienced #waterscarcity in the year 2007. We started exploring options in order to overcome our crisis. We looked at implementing some solutions, but space was becoming a major constraint. Eventually, we decided to begin with recharging the borewell in our society that had become dysfunctional in 2008. The #rainwater that accumulated on the terrace was filtered and released into the borewell. Once the borewell was revived, we no longer had to depend on water tankers. For 9 years now, our society was tanker-free. However, this year we had to call for water tankers. We began to look at other alternatives. That’s when we realised the importance of recharging groundwater levels. Thus, we constructed our first recharge pit to harvest surface water.

Today, we not only harvest rainwater, but have also successfully implemented the following methods to #conservewater.

 

Successfully Implemented Solutions
1) Recharging groundwater: A recharge pit measuring 9 ft x 12ft x 13 ft was built using big stones, sand and gravel along with a network of pipes with holes. This was connected to a small pump to collect the water before it slowly percolates to the recharge pit to recharge ground water. In this manner, lakhs of litres of water that would earlier simply run-off is now being harvested and used to recharge ground water levels.
2) Rainwater Filters: We have successfully implemented 200 #rainwaterfilters. Water collected from terraces passes through these filters before it is released into the borewell.
3) Water Aerators: 90% of households in our society have #wateraerators. Implementation of water aerators helps us conserve around 30% water per day. This amounts to approximately one lakh litre of water.
4) Fixing leakages: Checking for and fixing leakages is also essential.

 

Benefits Of Recharging Groundwater Levels
1. Besides saving water, we will also be saving electricity. Lower the groundwater levels, greater is the energy required to bring that water to the surface.
2. Recharging groundwater also improves the quality of water. TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) levels that were earlier 540, are now around 300.

It’s true, only we hold the solutions to our own water problems. Achieving all this was possible only because of the collective efforts and support of residents.