HOT TOPICS
SPOTLIGHT AGENCIES
The Water Workshop for Apartment Communities - BIOME @ Redwood Apts
Written By psaram42 - 6 December, 2009
Bangalore Citizen Reports drinking water drainage system Others Everything else groundwater RWH
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Venue: SJR Redwoods,
Off Haralur Road,
Off Sarjapur Road,
(Turn right before Spring Fields Apartment)
Bangalore.
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To day 06-Dec-2009 (Sunday) there was this Interesting Seminar at SJR RedWoods, Harlur Road, Off Sarjapura Road, Bangalore at 9AM. It went on till 1:30PM. ApartmentAdda.com [ http://apartmentadda.com/blog/ ] is interesting Web-based software for Management, Accounting and Communication in Apartment Complexes.
The seminar turned out to be a professionally organized workshop. The discussions were moderated by Mr. Subramanian Vincent Managing Director and Editor of OOrvani Media Pvt Ltd. Who are the editors for “Citizen Matters Bangalore” publication. The following were the main speakers and active participants:-
1. Avinash Krishnamurthy Executive Director, BIOME
2. Shubha Ramachndran, Water Sustainability Consultant
3. S Narahari, Assistant Executive Engineer, BWSSB
4. Prabhu Citizen Matters
6. Karan Journalist BIOME
7. Nate Stells Consultant, Biome
8. Ranganath MD, Ion Exchange, India
9. Sunil Jayawant
10. Anil Lobo
11. Bhardwaj
12. and many more
The main agenda for the workshop was to
1. Action points for conservation of water resource
2. Bigger Water Picture
3. Waste water Management
4. Mandatory Clauses of BWSSB Regulations
5. RWH Example case studies
Round table discussions were planned but did not consummate fully as the discussions and queries for each of the speaker became difficult to manage. In fact the snacks and tea was served while the workshop was in progress. As I understand this may not be the last workshop for our city of Bangalore from BIOME.
S Narahari AEE, BWSSB was the first to speak He has 28 years experience at BWSSB. BWSSB has a mandate on the core area of potable water supply to the city of Bangalore together with safe disposal of Sewerage water. BBMP is characterized by
1. Area : 1300 Sq KM
2. CMCs : 1275
3. CDP : 594
4. Core Area : 229 Sq KM
5. Periferal Area : 365 Sq KM
The main source of water to day is river Cauvery and 54 MLD of Tippagondana Halli reservoir. Total Drinking water supplied by BWSSB is 959 MLD as on today. The cauveri Water is pumped form a distance of 100 KM over a head of 500 Meters. This supply is at a cost of 2.8 million Rs per month of electric power, with corresponding Global Warming.
The Demand as of now is 1125 MLD. There are plans to increase the supply from the current levels to 1125 MLD by 2012 when the Cauvery water will reach the maximum available limit. This is the reason for the current policy of RWH.
BWSSB has these as the proposed solutions
1. Recycle water
2. Dual Piping for
a. Drinking
b. Sanitation
3. RWH
4. Restoration of Lakes
5. Etc
BWSSB currently has
1. 5638 Km of Pipe lines
2. 46 Chlorination Plants
3. 1920 Minor STPs
4. 1950 Major STPs
It also has Voice recording complaint phones and 74 Kiosks. Mr. Narahari also pointed out that People in CMC areas have to start paying charges for future DW supply plans of BWSSB
1. 0-600 Sft Rs 4000/-
2. 600-1200 ft Rs 8000/-
3. 1200-2400 Rs 16000/-
4. >2400 Rs 24000/-
Mr. Avinash Comlimented BWSSB as the best board of its kind in India. He reminded the Audience about “Water Adalat” was there for any complaints, and not the workshop, as some tendency to complain / rant was exhibited by us including me!!
Karan Journalist, Biome
He felt that Bangalore is blessed with Rain water which is double the present requirement. Bangalore has an average Rainfall of about 970mm per year. Hence RWH has the relevance.
Nate Stells, Biome
He talked about case studies in the context of
1. small, medium large size Apartments
2. Strategies adapted
3. Hydrological behavior etc.
Examples were of
1. Jyoti Medows, CV Raman Nagar
2. Tata Sherwood Apts
3. Prakash Castle, RT Nagar
Avinash Krishnamurthy, Executive Director, BIOME
He started of with a video of a bore well, taken by a water proof camera mounted on probe which can be inserted into a bore well of any diameter. There must be some name to such a device I wish. The video delivery was fine tunable to freeze at any point of interest. We could see a very clear picture of the water from wall fissures appearing at various depths. There was an adjoining sketch to explain what and why of whatever was seen by the audience. Mr. Avinash must be having a true scientific and analytic mind.
The most important point driven home by him was the single point of the benefits of ground water charging. Summarising his talk:-
1. Demand management
2. Water literate / Responsible
3. Engagement with communities
4. Water Tarrif
5. Gradations
6. True Ecological water usage
7. Defects of Gray water
8. many more
Mr. Ranganathan SS Consultant Total Water Management MD Ion Excahnge, India
He said that, being in the thick of water treatment, it was appalling to see very reputed builders in Bangalore are happly taking gullible Bangaloreans for a ride as far as STPs are concerned. STPs work on the principle of michrobic oxidation accelerated by oxygenting the sewage mixed with water sludge. It should be done at an open Corner of an Apartment complex, definitely not in the Basement of an Apartment. Unfortunately BWSSB has failed to put any regulation on this critical issue.
As Apartment Builders have no commitment to deliver a best deal to the customers in all respects whether apparent or not, they tend to cut corners. Consumers need to be educated by the city Fathers / authorities. The present seminar is a drop in the ocean.
Mr. Ranganath felt thar sewage Contamination is on the increase alarmingly.
Jayawant and Anjl Lobo
· Self Education
· Sense of Community
· Honesty is the best policy
· ROI only to some extent
· Have functional STPs
· Water from STP not insignificant
· RWH alleviates flooding
· Low TDS [Total Dissolved solids] water
· Open Area to Roof area an impotent ratio for RWH
· 20’ feet depth of well for recharging in Bangalore
· And more
After the workshop we adjourned to see what Shubha Ramachndran, Water Sustainability Consultant, Biome has done at Redwood apts. We got fairly good idea of what is roof top RWH and its economics.
COMMENTS
s_yajaman - 15 December, 2009 - 06:53
Here are rainfall statistics for Bangalore from the Hindu archives. A bit more helpful than the 909 mm annual average. The only guess was for Mar-May 2003 when I could not find data.
Might help with questions (i) and (ii). on (iii), someone more qualified will have to answer. (i) and (ii) are essentially inventory management related and so I feel okay to hazard an answer.
Jan-Feb Mar-May Jun-Sep Oct-Dec Total 2000 0 132 675 333 1140 2001 0 386 467 198 1051 2002 0 189 358 217 764 2003 0 150 394 215 759 2004 0 260 699 179 1138 2005 0 249 673 675 1597 2006 0 289 297 92 678 2007 0 253 747 234 1234 2008 20 157 850 261 1288 2009 0 220 704 924 Average 229 586 267 1057
March to June is the time when the water crunch is in full swing in Bangalore. And we get about 23 cm or 0.2m of water. A 240 sqm site would be able to harvest 48m3 of water @ 100% efficiency or about 25m3 water at half that. 25000 l of water is 250 l of water a day availability (over the 3 months) - which is pretty good.
What should we design the tank for? If all this water fell on Mar 1 and nothing ever fell again we need a 25000 l tank. But that would be unlikely. It would also not fall very uniformly.
We can plan for a peak rainfall of 10cm or about 12000 litres tank capacity. This is a function of how much one wants to invest and how long the water is usable.
On the groundwater bit. In an ideal world it would not matter. But in Bangalore, far too often it gets mixed with sewage and then goes down. Therefore local recharging might be better.
Hope this helps.
Srivathsa
sanjayv - 6 December, 2009 - 13:27
Nice report PSA sir. There are couple of numbers that may have been misquoted, but you conveyed an overall message and most of the information.
@Chari sir: BIOME is a for profit company started by the folks at the Non Profit Rainwater Club which installs RWH systems. So this was a fairly practical series of discussions. However, the information that you provided about the HDFC loans as well as your company's plans are nice to know. Good luck.
RKCHARI - 6 December, 2009 - 13:08
Dear PSA,
In your characteristic fashion, you have given us an excellent report of the proceedings this morning at the RedWoods Apartment complex, Sarjapur Road. I would have liked to come, but urgent personal work kept me from joining this important meeting.
Reading through your report, I get the feeling everyone talked about the need for better and more efficient water manaqgement. But no one seems to have spoken about the solutions available, except for Mr. Ranganath of Ion Exchange, who spoke about STPs.
I presume it was taken for granted that all apartment owners must install an RWH system as it has become mandatory. I wish someone had spoken about availability of agencies which actually install the units. I believe there really is none that is locally available. Most RWH Agencies tell you how to harvest water from rainfall, but none actually offer to do it for you!
Try asking the RWH helpline for actual help in harvesting rainwater and they go into a long harangue about various "simple" methods to do it, but no guideline on whom to contact and who would actually carry it out / have it installed in one's home.
Meanwhile, for Residents' Association of apartment owners, it would be heartening to know that HDFC Bank has taken a policy decision to extend loans to cover cost of installing community RWH Systems in highrise buildings, if Registered Residents' Associations would approach them with a formal proposal from any supplier of the entire system - from start to finish. HDFC can be paid back over any length of time that the Association feels comfortable paying back in.
There is a small interest amount charged by HDFC for such loans which my Company has decided to absorb completely, in the interest of promoting an important resource re-use for community welfare. It is all very transparent and there is no attempt to load the interest amount on to the product price or installation cost.
In the New Year (January 2010 onwards) my Company has decided to stock sufficient quantities of our products here in Bangalore imported in container loads so that anyone who wants to install a RWH unit would be able to do so by making just one phone call! We would arrange everything - from estimation, supply, installation to getting the bank loan sanctioned etc - literally a one-stop-shop which is truly hassel free!!
I hope this comment will not be construed as a publicity gimmick for promoting my Company and its products and services. I have deliberately left out name of Company and contact details as I want my present comment to be only viewed by all Praja members as merely an attempt to share important information - not promote our Company.
Regards,
Chari
psaram42 - 7 December, 2009 - 06:11
@ Mr. Chari,
You are right. That is exactly why the agenda was set by Biome as:-
1. Action points for conservation of water resource
2. Bigger Water Picture
3. Waste water Management
4. Mandatory Clauses of BWSSB Regulations
5. RWH Example case studies
If you had noticed, it was not intended to promote any company products and services, as such. The examples shown as implemented at Redwood Apts were by a company which was known to all. Hence there was no need to mention it specifically.
RKCHARI - 14 December, 2009 - 01:41
Dear Sanjayv,
I stand corrected about Cauvery water containing chemical contaminants. Technically, they are surface water and should not contain any contaminants.
However, I suspect BWSSB must be pumping the river water to central reservoirs where some chemicals are invariably added - not the least of which is Chlorine. Recent studies have pointed out that dosing of Chlorine too needs to be very carefully monitered. Excess Chlorine leads to long term effects on health. But no Chlorine is also not good because the reservoirs are open to contamination from elements and correct dosage is the answer. I am not sure whether BWSSB mixes any other chemicals. Some independent assessment done by citizens would help.
Tanker water is invariably full of contaminants. In the gated complex I live, when our Association tested the tanker water being bought by us, out of 32 parameters, only one was within limits! We immediately changed the vendor, but I am not sure whether even that is safe.
Tanker water or Cauvery water if "treated" inside the home by Aquaguard or any of the newer filtration units does not eliminate bacteria. It only puts them to sleep for 8 hours and it is hoped that within that period the water gets ingested through the human body! No credence for bottles of water that we store in fridges during summer which invariably are stored way beyond the 8 hour limit!
The long and short of it is that we are all drinking extremely "suspect" water. I have my doubts about mineral water bottles too!
While I do not want to paint a bleak picture, clean drinking water is very much in shortage and the sooner we decide to drink boiled and cooled water the better.
Regarding installing retention tanks in places infested with underground sewage and water pipelines, electrical cables etc, there really is no solution unless one is able to get the detailed drawings from the Engineering Consultants who designed the PHE connections for the builder. Dont waste your time chasing the builder. Just get info on who were the Engineering Consultants / PHE Consultants and chase them for detailed drawings. Being professional, they are more likely to oblige.
I cant but help taking this opportunity to point out that modular retention tanks which can be fitted under any place - pathways, children's garden, car parking lots - which do not require any dedicated open area, are definetly a far superior option while considering placement of underground tanks for harvesting rain. It is also essential to "treat" rainwater with first flush diverters or roof gardens and then pass it through good quality mesh filtration units before saving harvested rainwater in tanks.
Regarding concrete overhead tanks already in existence, the only answer is for the Resident's Association to regularly clean and flush the tanks. Alternatively, you can install a few large sized Syntex Tanks (preferably the black ones) and connect the inlet and outlet from the point before it enters the conrete tanks to go through the syntex tanks and be collected there. Over a period of time the concrete tanks will become redundant. You can use it to store STP water for gardening purposes if your STP process is clean enough and does not have odour.
Hope I have answered your queries.
Regards,
Chari
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