The Hindu            15.11.2013

Rainwater harvesting works well

At a time when attempts are made to revive rainwater
harvesting (RWH) structures, a city hotel has been silently reaping the
benefits of the concept and saving big on water over the past 10 years.

Ajantha
Hotel, situated close to the Central Bus Stand in the city, had
successfully revived a massive open well by putting up RWH structures on
its premises. The well, which had almost gone dry then, had been
meeting a major portion of the water requirements of the 170-room hotel,
its restaurant, and a marriage hall over the past decade. The well is
full of water now even after last year’s monsoon failure and the absence
of heavy rainfall so far this year. The hotel, established in 1966, is
one of the oldest in the city.

The hotel had created
two RWH structures, — one to harvest water from the roof of its marriage
hall building spread over about 6,400 square feet and another for a
block of 3,000 square feet. The structures include a filter bed where
pebbles, charcoal, and sand had been used to filter the rainwater. Both
the structures feed the open well.

“Our management
created the structures at a substantial investment about 10 years ago
during the previous AIADMK regime when rainwater harvesting was promoted
in a big way. The open well on our hotel premises, which was on the
verge of being closed, was connected to a couple of RWH structures.
Today, the benefits are obvious and a major portion of our water
requirement is met from the well,” said T. Sundara Ramanujam, manager of
the hotel.

The over 90-foot deep well now has more
than 50 feet of water and even during the height of the summer this
year, it had up to 25 feet of water. This has contributed to the
recharge of the groundwater in the area surrounding the hotel, he said.

The
RWH system at the hotel had become so much of a success that it was
projected as a model in the city by the corporation and visited by
officials, experts, and representatives of voluntary organisations.

The
hotel used to buy about 15 tankers (of 12,000 each) of water from
outside on an average every day. “Currently, we are using our own tanker
lorry for getting just about four loads a day and that too only for
emergency purpose or as a stand by. We are saving on buying nearly 12
tankers of water, which used to cost Rs. 350 about 10 years ago. Today,
it costs Rs. 850 a tanker. Even if we calculate it at Rs. 750 a tanker,
we are saving Rs. 9,000 a day and about Rs. 2.70 lakh a month,” Mr.
Ramanujam said.

Buoyed by the success of the
initiative, the hotel’s managing partner A. Venugopal plans to improve
on and expand the rainwater system.

Hotel Ajantha invested heavily on the system a few years ago and is reaping its benefits now.