The Hindu             14.11.2013

Rainwater harvesting structures planned along storm-water drains

The Tiruchirapalli City Corporation has planned to set
up rainwater harvesting structures (RWH) along the storm-water drains in
the city soon.

“We have storm-water drains running
for about 650 km in the city and RWH structures could be put up every 10
metres along the drains. The structures will have filter beds and pipes
running into the ground for up to 20 metres depth to recharge the water
table. We will soon incorporate the provision for RWH structures in the
design of the storm-water drains,” said Corporation Commissioner V.P.
Thandapani here on Wednesday.

He was speaking at a
workshop on “simple steps to achieve water sufficiency — rainwater
harvesting and grey water recycling,” organised by Rain Centre, Chennai,
in the city.

The workshop was meant for members of the media, architects, builders, municipal engineers, and town planners.

Mr.
Thandapani, who inaugurated the workshop, pointed out that the
corporation had framed bylaws making it illegal for residents to let out
sullage from toilets into open drains. Once the bylaws were gazetted,
the corporation would launch a campaign to sensitise residents against
letting out sullage into the storm-water drains.

Emphasising
the need for proper design and maintenance of rainwater harvesting
structures, Mr. Thandapani said the corporation had conducted a survey
recently and found that nearly 80 per cent of the 1.85 lakh properties
in the city had RWH structures. However, many of them were not properly
maintained and needed to be revived.

He said most of
the RWH structures had not been designed properly in proportion to the
built up area and open space in a particular building and the quantity
of the rainwater that could be harvested.

In most
buildings, RWH structures had been put up to meet minimal requirement
and excess rainwater often flowed on to the streets. Builders and
engineers should design the RWH structures properly to tap the maximum
potential for harvesting rainwater. City residents needed to be educated
more on creating proper RWH structures, he said.

Sekhar
Raghavan, Director, Rain Centre, Chennai, said although the concept of
rainwater harvesting had been talked about for 10 years, it had still
not got the importance it deserved. Designing RWH structure for a
particular site had not been well understood. These structures had not
been maintained properly.

Builders, architects, and
engineers had a responsibility to ensure proper design of the structures
and implement the concept correctly.

The Akash Ganga
Trust, which had set up the Rain Centre, had received a grant from
Arghyam, a non-governmental organisation, based in Bangalore, to conduct
15 workshops on efficient methods of rainwater harvesting and grey
water recycling in Tamil Nadu. Six of them had been held in Chennai and
three each were organised in Coimbatore, Madurai, and Tiruchi, he said.

V. Ganapathy, Liaison Officer, SCOPE, Tiruchi, spoke.

Technical sessions were held on rainwater harvesting and water security.