The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Slum dwellers catch on to rainwater harvesting

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 10, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Slum dwellers catch on to rainwater harvesting

By K. Lakshmi

CHENNAI, JUNE 9 . The community approach to rainwater harvesting and water consumption has caught the fancy of slum dwellers in the city. At Visalakshi Thottam near Mylapore, some residents say they were able to manage their water needs with the brief shower a couple of days ago.

The daily water consumption of each family of about 650 households in the tenement was five pots with a total capacity of about 80 litres. But, during days with a light shower, the residents were able to store about 20 pots. Some of them also use it for drinking.

This has become possible with involvement of the community along with a team that introduced the technology of diverting rainwater directly to the apartments for daily use.

It all started a month ago when seven engineering students of Anna University started campaigning for installation of a rainwater harvesting system called double pipe method. G. Lavanya, one of the team members, said, "Initially, it was difficult to break the ice with the residents. But, they eventually understood the bottom line and contributed to the installation in a brief way."

The idea of the project, costing Rs. 6 lakhs, was mooted by R. Jeyakumar, a member of the Rotary movement and builder, who took up a similar initiative in a slum tenement at Kuyil Thottam. Funded by the Rotary Club of Madras Chennapatna, the project was implemented in 24 out of 32 blocks.

Mr. Jeyakumar said rainwater collected on the terrace is diverted to a three-inch pipe, where the first flush and silt settle at the bottom. From there, water is diverted individually to 12 apartments on four floors through smaller pipes. These are connected to taps fitted with filters.

The problem of equal distribution of water to the residents in each block is handled by taking the outlet of small pipes from the top of the main horizontal three-inch pipe, which raises water level and balances the flow, he said.

"With this system, we can ensure rainwater supply all through the year. While residents can use rainwater directly during monsoon, water from sumps and bore wells near recharge wells to which the excess water is diverted can be used on other days," he said.

The water from the overflow pipe is diverted to recharge wells, which is useful not only to harness water but also to meet the requirement of the residents, he said.

A common borewell has been sunk for every three blocks with an amount of Rs. 6,000 spent installing the system in each block.

However, this method was not possible in some of the blocks owing to the weak structure of the buildings, which is not able to support even the pipes.

The club's president, Geetha Menon, said a 3,000-litre loft tank would be provided soon for drinking water purposes. The water will be disinfected periodically with chlorine and filtered through a system with activate carbon and sand.

The students, V. Subathra, M. Arunraj, K. Revathy, R. Gopinath, V. Ganga and V. Yamuna, who spent most of their time in campaigning for rainwater harvesting and monitoring installation of RWH structures, plan to check the maintenance at periodical intervals.

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