Electronic City

For my final site visit, I went to see another rainwater harvesting system, this time in a house in Electronic City. The owner, Mr Swayambhu, had installed it in 2008 with the help of Biome, and since then it had been acting as a secondary water source for the family. I was curious to see – how well was it working now, after nearly a decade of usage? Like at Ambalipura, I began by taking a look at the infrastructure, then went through some basic questions with the owner.

Mr Swayambhu gave me a quick tour of the system, starting with the terrace and balcony. Rainwater would collect here, before flowing down through pipes to the ground floor to a T valve. This was meant to separate the first flush after each major rain, so as to ensure that the water that made it to the next stage was clean. From here it would pass through a basic filter of charcoal and stones. Then it would empty into a large sump built under the parking space of the house. Any excess water would be directed to a recharge well dug right next to the owner’s old borewell. The system was simple and elegant, if a little worn out by age.

To me it seemed decently maintained, considering the time that had passed since its installation. The catchment areas looked fairly well swept, and I could even make out that they had been given waterproof coatings in the past (although these were peeling off at the moment). Some parts of the piping were slightly broken; luckily there were no large leaks to be seen. 

The first flush was seldom removed from the T valve, according to Mr Swayambhu, but in any case, whatever dust made it into the pipes was probably removed by the filter. At the end of the day, what came out of the taps was soft water that could be used for all purposes including drinking.

 
The main water source for the family was the city corporation, which sent them water tankers on a scheduled basis. Earlier, they had been using a four hundred feet -deep borewell, but they hadn’t checked it for water since it dried up a few years back. Rainwater was used as a backup, a secondary source, and fortunately it had all been going well, in spite of Bengaluru’s notoriously irregular rainfall patterns. As things were, Mr Swayambhu felt sure that they could have managed with rains as their only water source, if only he had designed the system to be on a larger scale: such was the amount of water that overflowed from the sump at times.


In terms of investment, it was not too expensive to set up the infrastructure, but this was probably because they were integrated into the house design. Mr Swayambhu suggested that perhaps he would have needed to spend more if he hadn’t thought of harvesting rainwater before building his house. The only noteworthy cost was that of the filter, which was added once the piping was complete. From a purely technical point of view, I strongly feel that seetting up and maintaining a similar RWH system should not be difficult for anyone in the city – provided they are willing to put some faith in their investment.

Of course, finding this inspiration is not always easy. No doubt many other people in Bengaluru are aware of rainwater harvesting and know its benefits, but for their own reasons they haven’t been able to turn thought to action. Perhaps they think it is impractical, or perhaps they prefer less time- consuming solutions. Whatever the case, the fact remains that the city’s water crisis is getting worse every year, and unless there is a shift to more sustainable water management practices, there could easily be a devastating water shortage in the near future.

Consider This Well

On my way back from the Defence Colony park, I decided to drop by at Mr Krishnan's house to have another look at his well. Of the nine well owners I had spoken to in Indira Nagar, Mr Krishnan was the only one who still uses his well on a regular basis, relying on it to provide at least a third of the water he needs. At a time when borewells, the municipal corporation and private tankers control the water supply, it is both inspiring to find someone willing to trust his own instincts and maintain an open well rather than go with the crowd. Talking to him cleared up whatever doubts I had about the viability of returning to open wells.

For Mr Krishnan, like many others, the main source of water is the city corporation. The perk, of course, is that for the last 44 years his well has never failed to provide him with backup in case the corporation's supply should fall short. No matter the season, it has always had about 3 ft of water. This is remarkable: firstly, because no one else in the area is known to have that much water in their well, and secondly, because the dimensions of Mr Krishnan's well are less than average (diameter of 2.5 ft, depth of 14 ft). And best of all, he told me, the water from his well can safely be used for all purposes, including drinking.

Of course it must not be denied that Mr Krishnan is lucky in the sense that his well is well situated in the shallow aquifer. Neither must it be denied, however, that there is a clear linkage between the success of his well and his refusal to get himself a borewell. While most of the residents of the city made the shift from traditional open well to borewell within a few years of the new technology arriving, he did not follow suit, simply because he did not see the need to do so. His well gave him enough for his needs, and he knew that getting a borewell would only encourage him to extract more than necessary  - hence depriving other people of their needs.

Moreover, being an older resident of the area, he is naturally more invested in his property and the land as a whole. This in turn means that he is careful of how much water he uses, as he does not wish to unnecessarily drain the already low water table. In all likelihood, if he used his water with less caution, he would not have been able to count on his open well even as a backup.

As things are, the well has never had major problems. The last time Mr Krishnan had to get it cleaned was over a year back. In any case, although he was confident that its water was potable, he had asked Alana and I if we wanted to conduct some tests for quality on it. And so we had, and then we came up with some results, indicating that it was indeed moderately safe for usage.

What I found out on this visit, unfortunately, was that there was a bad E coli infestation in the well. This I discovered when I looked at the test bottle we had left with him earlier. The once clear water had turned completely black, and the entire room was hit by the stench of sewage when I tried opening the bottle. Mr Krishnan assured me that the water was being filtered properly before it went to his taps, and that he would soon get some alum to clean his well.

He then explained to me that the reason for the infestation was not that hard to pinpoint. Some time back, a sewage pipe had broken underground and started emptying into a public ditch. Naturally all the wells nearby had been contaminated. Why hadn't the municipality sent anyone to fix this, I asked. Mr Krishnan didn't reply, but he didn't need to.

 In an era when the open well is being rudely relegated to the pages of history, cases such as Mr Krishnan's are rare. Despite the minor hurdles that come as a result of using his well, he continues to prioritise sustainable water management over luxury and convenience. And best of all, he has found a balance between using corporation water and his own water. If people both within and outside government were able to understand the value of the open well the way he does, it would certainly take Bengaluru much closer to resolving its water crisis.

Defence Colony Well

As part of my work collecting data on wells, I made a third visit to Indira Nagar. However, this time it was not to see a well in someone’s house, but to the Defence Colony Park, where a group of traditional well cleaners (manuvaddas) were cleaning up a hundred-year-old community well. This trip sounded fun, but also challenging, since I’d have to make conversation with my broken Kannada: but then again, I figured, I could always bring in a little Tamil if needed, so no worries. I packed my notes, made sure my phone camera was working, and started for work.


It was a fairly large structure, about 20 ft deep and 30 ft in diameter. Unlike the other wells I had seen so far, this one still had a good amount of water, albeit water stained reddish-brown and containing algae and aluminium foil plates. According to Mr Ramakrishna, one of the well cleaners, it had had nearly twelve feet of water before they started pumping it out the day before. This was indeed impressive, considering that the well provided water to the entire park.

Next to the mouth of the well sat an enormous heap of mud and dead branches, with all sorts of plastic and paper sticking out of it. This was only a portion of the trash that had been accumulating in it over the years. Upon asking the cleaners, I learned that this was the first time that the well was ever being cleaned. Decades of neglect by the owning BBMP had turned it, like many other water bodies in the city, into a polluted wreck. Just that week, fortunately, a hundred members of the local Defence Colony Association had pooled money to get it renovated. Biome had put them in touch with the manuvaddas. 
 
The well cleaning team then decided to give me a brief outline of the renovation process. To begin with, of course, the well has to be emptied. This was taking a much longer time than usual with the Defence Colony Park well; on the day of the visit, despite the pump having run for 24 hours and draining out 20 litres per second, there was still 3 ft of water. This was a good sign, as it implied that the shallow aquifer was replenishing itself at a high rate in this location and wouldn’t have trouble filling up the well once the job was done. 
 
As the water is being pumped out from the well, the cleaners start cleaning the stones lining the inside of the well, as well as removing any large branches or garbage floating in the water. The trash in the DCP well had already been taken out for the most part. 
 
Once the well is empty, they apply sunna, bleach, potassium permanganate, and alum on its bottom and sides. The final step is to cover the surface of the well with a plastic mesh to prevent its further pollution. All this normally takes two to three days. 

According to the well cleaners, they will be done with their work in another day. Once they finish, the well will be ready to provide fresh, clean water for watering the plants in the park. And it will not be through any civic body, but thanks to the local residents’ initiative and the well cleaners’ hard work. 



- Arun Rams 

Indira Nagar Stage I

Shortly after I came back from Ambalipura, I received my next site location from Shubha ma'am. This time I would be documenting some old open wells in Indira Nagar, most of them dating back to the late seventies. A certain Ms X, one of the well owners and a friend of Biome, had offered to show us around the neighborhood and make the necessary introductions. Since there would at least nine different houses to visit for this project, I decided to do my fieldwork in two separate trips.

For this assignment, I’d be working with Alana, another intern on Biome’s water team. While it was primarily my job to conduct the interviews and mark the wells on the Mapunity phone app, Alana would be helping me think of on-the-spot questions and additional details. She’d also be taking the photographs: something I couldn’t do too well, as my phone camera had been damaged recently. We met a few minutes ahead of time in Indira Nagar and talked briefly about the methodology we’d use with each interviewee. Then once we had revised what exactly to look for, we went over to 12th Cross, Stage I, where Ms X lived.

When we reached her house, Ms X first gave us a history of the area. Apparently, Indira Nagar – or Binnamangala, as it was once known – had once been a swamp owned by a local chieftain. When the British took over, they bought this land and started using it as a direct route to the Bangalore Fort. After independence, it changed hands quickly. Initially it ended up with a certain well-founded family, but a while later, got into the hands of IPS officers granted land by the central government. In the seventies it was divided into layouts. Finally, it was divided among upcoming entrepreneurs, military families and so on.

With every passing decade it became less of a swamp and more of a residential area. When Ms X arrived in 1983, Indira Nagar was a quiet place with mostly single story houses. Water was never a problem, and nearly every family had its own open well. By the early 2000s, though, things had changed rapidly: urbanization had brought in large numbers of immigrants from the neighboring states (and even the north), resulting in more houses being rented out to tenants.

Simultaneously people began to change their attitudes to their surroundings, no longer feeling emotionally invested in the land they lived on. Many of the original settlers in the area had left the country with their families to work abroad. Those that remained found that they were the last of a dying breed. Nevertheless, they continued to live like they had before, refusing to sell their land or cover their open wells although real estate was booming and the groundwater table was rapidly dropping. And all the while, metropolitan Bengaluru grew around them, drowning out the voices of the old city.

Having recollected her memories to us, Ms X then took us to nine houses that still had open wells, starting with her own. Over two days we documented each well in as much detail as possible, encouraging the owners to not only give us numbers and figures, but also share with us their experiences with the water crisis. All of them were eager to talk to us about their stories, and it was with some regret each time that I had to remind them that I didn’t have immediate solutions to their problems.

The wells surveyed are listed below, with the details that the owners didn’t mind us sharing online. Of all the houses we visited, only the last one still regularly uses water from its open well. Everyone else has shifted to either borewells or the Kaveri water.
 _______________________________________________________________________________





Well 1
Address: 20, 12th Cross, Stage I, Indira Nagar
Diameter: 3 ft
Depth: 20 ft
Age: 34 years 
Last cleaned: About 20 years ago.
Purpose: NA
Water level: The well has never yielded water.








Well 2
Address: 86, 11th Cross, Stage I, Indira Nagar
Diameter: 3 ft
Depth: 30 ft
Age: ~40 years
Last cleaned: Unknown
Purpose: NA
Water level: The well has been dry ever since the house was purchased, and hence remains unused.





Well 3
Address: 22, 12th Cross
Diameter: 3 ft
Depth: 24 ft
Age: 32 years
Last cleaned: 5 years back.
Purpose: NA
Water level: The well fills up a little when it rains. Besides that, it is usually dry, and has been so for five years.
Other information: Two rings were added to the well when it dried up five years back – but the well remains dry.








Well 4
Address: 11th Cross
Diameter: 2.5 ft
Depth: 20 ft
Age: 47 years
Last cleaned: NA
Purpose: NA
Water level: No one maintains the well, and hence, the little water it contains is never used. 










Well 5
Address: 217, 6th Cross
Diameter: 3 ft
Depth: 22 ft
Age: 50 years
Last cleaned: NA
Purpose: Recharge.
Water level: It fills halfway when there is a rain, but otherwise, remains dry.








 Well 6
Address: 223, 7th Cross (12.9804060, 77.6399192)
Diameter: 3 ft
Depth: 22 ft
Age: 40 years
Last cleaned: 2 years ago
Purpose: Recharging the borewell.
Water level: The well fills up a little when there is rain.
Other information: The well water was initially used for all purposes, until fifteen years ago, when the owner added an extension to the house for renting out. A borewell was dug for convenience. As of now, the borewell is not used: the sole water source is the Kaveri.






 Well 7
Address: 176, 9th Cross (12.980594, 77.639442)
Diameter: 2.5 ft
Depth: 20 ft
Age: 52 years
Last cleaned: The well has not been cleaned for a couple of years, mainly because it has been difficult to find anyone to do the job.
Purpose: Gardening
Water level: The well is dry except during rains.
Other information: The well had water for 45 years (although for the last five years of that, the water was salty and brackish). It was used for all purposes. Borewells have greatly reduced the water table, and as of now the well is solely rainfed. If there is continuous rain for two weeks or so, it fills up and retains water for 15-30 days. The owner's main water source now is the Kaveri.




Well 8
Address: 175, 9th Cross (12.980592, 77.639445)
Diameter: 3 ft
Depth: 20 ft
Age: 50 years
Last cleaned: Not known
Purpose: NA
Water level: The well has been empty for the last 4-5 years, exempting when the occasional heavy rains fill it up.
Other information: For the last 4-5 years, the well has not yielded any water. Since then, the owner has been forced to use corporation water and borewell water. Five years ago, the borewell found water at 150 ft, but now that has fallen sharply.






Well 9
Address: 216/A, 6th Cross (12.982207, 77.640019)
Diameter: 2.5 ft
Depth: 14 ft
Age: 44 years
Last cleaned: 1.5 years ago.
Purpose: Water is drawn from the well when corporation water is unavailable. Then it is used for all purposes.
Water level: The well has water at a depth of about 10-12 feet from the top. Water levels have always been this low.
Other information: The water looked clear and potable. When tested for quality, it yielded the following results.

• Salinity: 390 RPM
• Conductivity: 826 uS
• ph: 7.5 (uncalibrated)
• Total Dissolved Solids: 570 PPM
• E. coli test: the water turned black, confirming the presence of the microbe. 

- Arun Rams

RWH in Ambalipura

My first site visit was to a housing complex in Ambalipura, Haralur Road. The owner was a client of Biome who had been harvesting and using the rainwater from her terrace for the last five to six years. She already had some prior experience with water conservation and environmental awareness, coming from a dry part of the country, and it would be interesting to hear what she had to say. When I reached her house at about half past eleven, the first thing I did was have a quick look at the infrastructure.

The system looked effective. Rain would collect on the terrace, from where it would flow down in a pipe to the ground floor of the house. Right at the bottom, the pipe was closed with a cap, ensuring that the rainwater could not leave the pipe by this route. A few feet above the cap was a T valve, where another pipe branched off perpendicular to the main pipe. The second pipe connected to a filter, after which it opened into a rainwater collection sump. This mechanism ensured that the first few litres of each rain (containing cement dust, leaves, silt etc) would not go into the main sump, but would instead collect in the closed-off first pipe. Following this, the rainwater would then be pumped up to the terrace again, where it would join the main tank from which the house got water for all its uses.

According to the owner, the entire setup was regularly cleaned and checked for proper functioning. Every day, the house help would sweep the terrace to remove the leaves fallen from the nearby trees. Additonally, once in fifteen days, a plumber would clean the T valve and filter. This had been the case from the beginning, and not once had the system developed problems. The water that came out of the taps was clear and potable. The infrastructure was impeccable.

However, the efficiency of a system cannot be narrowed down to physical constraints alone. One must also consider the role of the consumers. I needed to get an idea of how invested the family was in the idea of rainwater harvesting. Upon my asking why they had decided to opt for it, the owner told me that first of all, saving water was an integral part of her family culture, and secondly, it was a sustainable source of water the price of which was not determined by an external party. I learned that the city’s municipal corporation, which provided Kaveri water in several areas, did not supply it in this locality, and thus the only other source of water was private tankers. Not only were these tankers placing a massive burden on the water table – extracting water from borewells over 1500 ft deep is no joke! – but they were also expensive. Thus, from both an ecological as well as an economical point of view, rainwater harvesting was an excellent choice.

Rainfall patterns in Bengaluru have been inconsistent in the past decade, thanks to global warming. For the last two years the monsoons were rather disappointing, but before that they were fairly heavy. It was still a surprise for me, though, when the owner explained that for on average, the family can get by with rain as the only water source for four to six months a year. Firstly, this meant that for a considerable part of each year, they do not need to buy water from the tankers at all, and secondly, that they use rainwater for just about everything. But how on earth did they collect enough water? 
 
It isn’t nearly as impossible as it sounds. One would need to make an initial investment to incorporate all the infrastructure, of course – and this is what intimidates many potential users, because there is always the fear that it will become wasted money. Somehow, it seems easier to just pay a little extra to the private tankers, doesn’t it. That aside, the main challenge to overcome is the attitude most people have when it comes to water usage: they simply do not see the need to save water, despite knowing that there are severe water shortages in their cities and that water is increasingly becoming a luxury for most classes. 
 
Fortunately, the owner’s family does not suffer from this attitude, and they have incorporated this into their lifestyle wherever possible. Faucets are always turned low, the washing machine is on a water-saving setting, and dishes are washed with just about one bucket of water. Since the household does not consist of many members (there are only four people in the family), the quantity of water demanded is not very high. Despite having to constantly remind the maid not to waste water, they have managed to stand their ground and keep from becoming lax.
 
Change on a larger scale is slow, and it will be a long time before more people are able to follow suit. One thing is certain, however: this simply cannot go on. The cost of water is increasing rapidly while groundwater levels are dropping. Soon it might be too late to save the situation. There needs to be a shift towards sustainable water management, and it needs to happen now, not ten years later. And rainwater harvesting could be a major part of this change.

- Arun Rams