WEST ZONE (India) - City-wise Rainwater Harvesting Vendors/ Consultancy List

        

      Biome gets regular enquiries about rainwater harvesting, water treatment and lake rejuvenation outside Bangalore. I am working on a database of organisations/ consultancies providing these services.*

MAHARASHTRA –

Pune:

Organisation Name	Service(s)	Contact No	Email Address
Parjanya	Rain Water Harvesting	+91 9860577364	parjanya48@yahoo.com
Envision Consultants	Rainwater harvesting,  Water Conservation	+91 9545044242	info@envisionconsultants.in ; envision.pune@gmail.com
Ira Sustainable Water Solutions	Rainwater harvesting,  Storm Water Management, Water Audit	+91 7776063322	info@irawater.com
Era Hydro-Biotech Energy Pvt Ltd	Rainwater harvesting,  Eco-Housing, Wastewater treatment, Solar and Wind energy	+91 9422078412	contact@erahbt.com ; response@erahydrobiotech.com

Mumbai region:

Organisation Name	Service(s)	Contact No	Email Address
Sunlight Consultancy	Rainwater harvesting	+91 9820962787	sunlightconsultanci@gmail.com
Water Field Technologies Pvt Ltd	Rainwater harvesting, Geophysical Surveying, Water Management Consultancy	+91 8048603396 ; +91 9821340043 ; +91 9821244882	https://www.rainwatersystems.co.in
N.S. & Associates	Rainwater harvesting(mainly design), NOC from CGWA, Green building	9867344735	nsaoffice@nsassociates.co.in

Aurangabad:

Organisation Name	Service(s)	Contact No	Email Address
Kedia Rainwater Harvesting Pvt Ltd	Rainwater harvesting in large open space	+91 9371780701 ;        240-2356599	info@varshajal.com

GUJARAT -

Vadodara:

Organisation Name	Service(s)	Contact No	Email Address
Allegiance Rainwater Harvesting Services	Rainwater harvesting	+91 8071265376	allegiance.entp@gmail.com

Ahmedabad:

Organisation Name	Service(s)	Contact No	Email Address
Vardhman Envirotech	Rainwater harvesting	+91 7490007599 +91 9537977599	hi@vardhmanenvirotech.com ; care@vardhmanenvirotech.com

GOA -

Panjim:

Organisation Name	Service(s)	Contact No	Email Address
Lila Digital and Environmental Solutions Pvt. Ltd.	Rainwater harvesting, Water Treatment, Plumbing, Environmental Audit (not for individual houses)	+91 9890515155	info@lilasolutions.in

*This is not for promoting, but rather for the purpose of information provision.

- Mukta AD

Traditional Well Diggers

I’ve found plenty of things surprising while living here in Bangalore, many things even shocking. One thing that has not ceased to amaze me are the tireless work ethics present among the laborers of this city. Some of the occupations you see on a daily basis are tedious, back breaking, and dirty. Some are even down right demeaning. It’s not uncommon to see some whose daily work is to sweep dirt from the street and sidewalk, head low to the pavement, breathing in diesel and dust in the hot sun. I’ve never seen a man do this job, and have heard many of the women who do it are bound to these occupations by traditional caste.

There’s also the auto drivers, omnipresent throughout the city, able to navigate the maze of roads and alleys like the back of their hands. There was one late night in the city where I encountered a long row of autos that stretched nearly a quarter mile, each with its respective driver fast asleep in the backseat. Most had no blanket or pillow, just the clothes they drove in. I later found out that many of these drivers don’t have homes in the city, and like migrant workers, sleep in rented autos to stay where the business is. Driving is their living, and autos their temporary house. I suddenly feel less of an achievement bargaining these driver’s prices down. It’s clear they could use the 50 rupees we argue over more than I can.

Although the work ethics and occupations of these men and women are beyond admirable, none have stood out more than those of the Manuvaddars. Manuvaddar is the traditional name for the skilled laborers that dig and install open wells. My first encounter with this group came last week on a site visit to the rural town Chikkaballapur where a small crew of 6 men were digging 40 wells to recharge the groundwater underneath a large agricultural plot. As our driver sped across the dirt field, every 30 meters or so would be another perfectly circular hole with piles of earth around it. It reminded me of the book Holes, but instead of 5 feet by 5 feet, these were a precisely 3 feet wide, and up to 100 feet deep.

We pulled up to one of such holes and hopped out of our air conditioned van. We were met with very unforgiving 93 degree heat. With no shade in sight, just standing still made your shirt stick to your back. We had been led to this spot by this group's leader, Shankar. He was a short and stout man, with thick rough fingers and dark skin. Dressed in a dirty white shirt and short pants he met us with a big grin and introduced us to his crew. As we spoke to him about his life, his struggles, and his goals, one crew member was helped into a nearby hole and with a shortened shovel and metal pole began digging. The man worked with refined efficiency, stabbing the earth in circular motions before heaving the soil 10 feet up to the surface. Between short breaks the man dug nearly 3 feet of depth in a short 45 minute span.

I’ll remind you it was 93 and only only getting hotter. The going rate for a well of this variety at 15 ft deep, concrete lined and sealed, is only 70 US dollars. It takes a crew of 4 men 15 hours to complete. That’s just over a dollar an hour per person.

The purpose for our visit that day was to gain information about what these workers struggled with in terms of finding work and marketing themselves. Team Biome has made it our project to find these well diggers a more consistent and profitable method of finding jobs in the city. Not only is their work high quality and efficient, it may also be the key to achieving water security for the 12 million inhabitants of Bangalore. With each open well these men dig comes a pipeline of sorts, for water to flow deep into the soil beneath the city and recharge extremely stressed water tables. The concrete jungle that is Bangalore makes it nearly impossible for most water to find its way underground to aquifers beneath the city.

Seeing the smiles and spirit of these men that day, and skill and care they bring to their work, has created quite a sense of urgency and motivation to try and find a better profit model for their business. The key to saving Bangalore’s dire water needs may not be in the hands of large scale government mandates, or fancy rainwater harvesting systems for that matter. It may be in the thick calloused fingers of men like Shankar, who with enough jobs and respect, could reverse the effects of urbanization, and save this city from imminent disaster.

Henk

Henker

Hen

Pictured is water being pumped out of an aquifer into this holding pit. Water from the pit is pumped into water tankers that sell the water to rural homes and farms for much higher prices than if they were connected to the tap. It felt like we were witnessing the Earth being robbed and sucked dry. But of course, people need to drink water! And it's not as though the water that comes out of our tap in the city is sourced much differently. Water is a shared resource and all of us face water scarcity.

Bonus: There were fish in the holding pit due to a recent storm! (I guess it rains fish?) Just kidding, there was a larger pond nearby that must have overflowed during the storm.

Cristina

Get ready for a story

Henk with the boys :)

A day as a Biome Intern from the University of Washington

Yesterday was our team’s first field visit without a supervisor from either the GCIL team, or Biome (the NGO we are interning with). The day started off at 9:15 am. We borrowed a 3-meter measuring tape from Elbin, and Bujin loaded 8 packages of cookies into her backpack, as usual. Personally, I thought this was too few. I hoped she knew that I planned to eat some of them. 

After about an hour drive, we arrived at Rajiv Nagar primary school. We walked in to interview the headmaster.  Turns out, he was on his way out and wouldn’t be back until 3 pm. It was 10 am. Fortunately, he was graceful enough to allow us to interview him quickly. As soon as we sat down, he asked if we had a permit to take up teachers’ and students’ time. We did not. But luck was on our side once again, and with Anna, our translator’s help, we called Biome, and somehow cleared up the issue. We finished up that interview, and then spoke to the Rainwater Team, a team of 5 or 6 boys who perform basic, easy maintenance on the rainwater harvesting system. The boys exhibited groupthink, with all 5 of them bobbing their heads at whichever question, and all of them standing in a kind of superhero formation, with a leader in the front. I am not sure why, but they rarely smiled. When asked why there were no girls on the team, they said that the girls couldn’t go on the roof because of their skirts, and that the girls were too weak to turn the plastic rainwater switch that opens and closes one of the pipes. When prompting the teachers about the same topic, they told us that there are girls on the rainwater team. We spoke to these young ladies afterwards. It was extremely weird to me that their rolls were hardly acknowledged, even if they are not allowed to do everything the boys do. 

Nonetheless, we moved on to the the second part of our field visit. Henk, Evan, and I went on the roof to measure the area of the rainwater catchment basin. We found two local women looking up at us, and their golden retriever, whom they lifted up so that he was only standing on his back paws, and shook his paw to wave at us. I was sad that I couldn’t better communicate with these two friendly, seemingly awesome women. 

Then, despite all of the ups and downs in our visit, the unthinkable happened. Evan climbed down the ladder from the roof. I climbed down. Henk climbed down. Now, on this side of the building we were climbing up and down from, several trees had been planted. Most of them were a decent size, say 3 to 10 feet. But one small sapling had recently been planted. You could tell it was just beginning to grow, about to hit a growth spurt maybe. But sadly, just as Henk reached the ground, he stepped slightly to the left of the ladder, and in one quick motion, smashed the beautiful sapling almost completely in half. One of the boys watching started muttering under his breathe, probably regretting ever fetching the ladder to allow us on to the roof. He grabbed the closest rocks and tried his best to prop up the pitiful plant. It almost looked good as new, but we all knew the truth. The little sapling could never recover. 

“Ksamisi, ksamisi!*” Cried Henk. He was practically in tears over his betrayal to our guests. Anna translated for us that that sapling was a special plant that this student and the headmaster had planted and taken care of together. Of course. Henk could not keep it in upon hearing this detail, and began to sob. ** 

We comforted Henk, and said we could go buy another sapling. So, we all loaded into the car, with the three students who had witnessed the accident (including the student who helped plant the sapling), and went to the nearby plant nursery. There were beautiful roses and hibiscus plants! They did not have the same type of tree which Henk had just murdered, but the students picked out a different tree, and in addition, Henk bought the headmaster a small rose bush. 

Overall, I’d say our first mission without supervision was a success. 

UW Interns: Cristina, Henk, Evan and Bujin

Obtaining Rainfall Data From KSNDMC

To obtain the rainfall dataset you want -

1. Send in an email to office@ksndmc.org addressing the director
2. In the email, make sure you mention who you are, what data you want, what you intend to do with the data, and whether the purpose is commercial
3. Call the toll free number +91 080 67355000 if you don’t get an email reply within 3-4 working days. (Note - Do not call on Sundays as the office is closed and call between 10AM-6PM)
4. On approval from the director, the data would be sent to you in a raw excel sheet format

The datasets I got for my project are -

• Daily rainfall data for 184 rain gauges situated across the Bengaluru Urban district
• A shapefile containing all rain gauge locations
• Rainfall data, for the last 30 years, across the 4 taluks (Anekal, North, South, East) in the Bengaluru Urban district

*I decided not to use the third dataset for this task

Data Cleansing -

• A major problem was the lack of coherence between the hobli names in the shapefile and the hobli names in the excel sheet mostly in terms of spelling and format differences (capitalisation, underscores, etc)
• This meant that I could not join my required field (in this case, annual rainfall for each rain gauge) to the shapefile directly without making all the record names match - a task which I performed manually across all 184 rain gauges

*PM contact@biome-solutions.com for more information on the cleansed dataset

- Vikhyath Mondreti, Summer Intern at Biome Environmental Solutions