NDTV 24×7 conducted a live debate on 18th June 2019 from 8.30 to 9 pm. The Program was titled Reality Check. It was anchored by Vishnu Som. The panelists in the discussion were S Muralidharan, Prof. Manohar Khushalani and TKS Elangovan.

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NDTV has conducted a survey in chennai asking the general public about various problems that they are facing related to water. The residents then told the channel that they have to wait for hours in line to collect some water for every 2 days. Some of them even said that they don’t get enough water to bath. 

According to a london-based risk analytics firm, Chennai is facing “the most extreme risk” of water stress and that this situation could be the new normal for millions of people.  Chennai, he said, gets an average of 54 days of rain per year, yielding an average rainfall of about 140 centimeters (55 inches). Its failure to collect the rain that falls, especially during poor monsoons such as that of last autumn, leads to what he called a “man-made” crisis of scarcity. Less than four years ago, Chennai saw devastating floods that took at least 422 lives in Tamil Nadu and caused up to $14 billion in damages. But most of that rainwater flowed into the sea, lost forever to Chennai’s parched groundwater reserves. As the coastal city anticipates its upcoming autumn monsoon season, residents and experts have criticized authorities for failing to rehabilitate a notoriously mismanaged water supply.

Unless we capture the rain that falls in those monsoon days, we will run out of water

Manohar Khushalani stated that the big factors that have led to this crisis in Tamil Nadu are deforestation and mining, in other words construction of buildings for development is in the process.. These types of constructions have halted the recharge of lakes and reservoirs that  supply water to the households, and since the recharge has stopped, the major lakes and reservoirs have gone completely dry. Even the amount of rainfall has been declining and that amount was not enough to recharge the lakes.

Water tankers are being called into most of the areas of Tamil Nadu which are facing drought. However, government tankers can take up to a month to appear after requested, so some families, wealthy residents, and business owners have opted to pay for costly private water tankers. The poor who live in slums do not have this option; a family in Chennai’s slums may receive as little as 30 litres (7.9 US gallons) of water every day compared to an average American household which uses 1,150 litres (300 US gallons) of water a day.

S Muralidharan mentioned the fact that Tamil Nadu contains 6 percent of India’s population and it covers 4 percent of India’s land area but still the state only receives 2-2.5 percent of the water provided. This tells that Tamil Nadu has already become a dry state and is facing water crisis currently.

What steps have been taken to improve the situation?

The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewage Board, which is responsible for the city’s water supply, has pushed for lakes to be desilted, allowing them to be used for water storage. The state government said in response it has begun to set up 270 water purification centers and has recently begun construction on Chennai’s third desalination plant, after which the government said the city will no longer have to rely on monsoon rains.

Under former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, who served in the role for over 14 years, Chennai made rainwater harvesting compulsory, requiring every building to install a water catchment system on its rooftop and pour the collected rainwater into the ground. However, when a survey was conducted regarding this, only 40 percent of the buildings were found to be complying with this law. The following three years brought heavy rains and, he said, dramatically raised the groundwater level, filling dry open wells for the first time in decades. Though the 40 percent compliance rate was a good start, it wasn’t good enough for the state to come out of the water crisis.

The city already has two desalination plants with capacity of 210 million litres a day that service the northern suburbs. A third 150 million litre plant costing nearly Rs 1300 crore would be ready next year. 2 new recycling plants are also being built which will have a capacity of 120 million litres a day. This will free up domestic drinking water supplies and reduce the reliance on the already stressed ground water resources.

Watch More Programs on this Subject by clicking on the playlist below:

Channel One’s half-hour program where Prof. Manohar Khushalani elaborated on how to tackle the water crisis in Delhi in a holistic fashion. Recorded in Channel One Studio in Noida, UP in May 2013

With the rising temperatures in Delhi, the need and demand for water are also rising. The water supply in the capital is becoming worse day by day. Even after multiple promises made by the government, the pressing issue still remains and is in fact growing.

There are many ways in which the situation can be tackled but planning is required. The demand and supply have to be met. The amount of groundwater used is currently more than what is being percolated back. Most of Delhi is located on a hill and groundwater has a little to no existence there. Even the villages where water used to be abundant have very less water now.

Delhi Jal Board has introduced a GPS tracking system for the tankers to prevent stealing and black marketing. The government is also working on directing the water in the right canals which will increase the percentage of water that can be used. The system has been made but even after multiple complaints and requests, there’s no action being taken regularly.

Prof. Manohar Khushalani adds some solutions to the problems. He states that the water level was high years back even when Delhi was a hilly area. So there might have been some mismanagement behind the issue at hand today.

Sewage treatment is also very necessary because otherwise rivers get polluted by the sewage. Sewage farms have been replaced by construction of buildings. Dilution of water has become impossible after people started covering the gutters. These stormwater drains have been made by using public tax money and no one has the right to block them. A formal penalty will be the best solution to this problem.

The calls received in the panel discussion shows how people are frustrated with the situation. They usually get dirty water, which happens because the mainline gets mixed with the sewage line. One caller suggests that an RO system or any water-purifier system can be used in a locality. Jal Board needs to make sure that the voices of people are heard so that better decisions can be made in regards to providing clean water.

For more details visit the following link : https://youtu.be/ppQ-9nAdu70

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BTP Students: Sejal Kumar / Aysha Fazilath / Rahul Patwardhan / Vyshakh Dharan

The last two years have been difficult for residents of India’s eastern city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu State. Monsoon rains have failed for two years and the city has braved a heat wave compounded by water scarcity.

On 19 June 2019, the state government announced that Day Zero—or the day when the city reservoirs were empty—had been reached. Local officials then announced that they would transport 10 million litres of water daily by train from 200 kilometres away to provide enough water, especially for the poor, to survive.

Chennai’s water stress is not unique to the city. From Cape Town, South Africa to Iran’s port city of Khorramshahr, individuals and communities in numerous countries worldwide have in recent years been suffering from water shortages.

Read More

Rainwater is amongst the purest water one can get distilled as it is by the sun. However, in a rainwater harvesting system, the water comes in contact with several surfaces, such as the roof or gutters. Its flow becomes possibly mixed with leaves or dust.

To get water fit for use at the end of the harvesting process, apart from keeping these surfaces clean, we can filter the water before storage. Ideally a water harvesting filter with inbuilt Sand and Aggregate filter is long lasting and requires less maintenance. See the link below for the design of such a pit.

However when there is a space crunch you can use a modular pipe filter to be directly connected to the piping system from the roof to the borewell or dugwell to be recharged. For maintenance of that system you must refer to the manufacturer’s brochure.

Link to the Water Harvesting Filter Pit details:

Domestic Water Harvesting Ideas by Prof. Manohar Khushalani

Recharge Pit with Desilting Weir- Design Manohar Khushalani

This Recharge pit can be used where the volume of water is large and there is not enough space to accommodate a desilting tank. The other advantage is that the surface water runoff can come from all four sides of the pit as the desilting weir can be all around the pit.

Important: The number of borewells depends on the volume of water. Minimum one , maximum two, Three borewells can be used only in exceptional circumstances. Under no circumstance, the borewell should be deeper than the firsr acquifer. This is to ensure that people dont use it for pumping out water from deep acquifers.

High Capacity Recharge Pit Designed By Manohar Khushalani

This Ground Water Recharge Pit is for Societies with many flats or in institutional areas. Size is Indicative depending on the size of the catchment. More than one Pit can be used if necessary. Water to such a pit should be cleaned through one or more Desilting Tanks. See the previous article on Desilting tank

Important: The number of borewells depends on the volume of water. Minimum one, maximum two, Three borewells can be used only in exceptional circumstances. Under no circumstance, the borewell should be deeper than the first aquifer. This is to ensure that people dont use it for pumping out water from deep aquifers.

If there is only direct surface runoff to the harvesting pit from surrounding areas see the next article on built-in desilting weir

Water Harvesting: Recharge Pit with built in Desilting Weir | Manohar Khushalani

For Pipe Filters (Not Recommended in large Catchments) See the link below

Water Harvesting: Pipe Filters where there is a space crunch | Manohar Khushalani

Desilting Tank Design by Manohar Khushalani

After the harvested water is brought down from the catchment area this tank is used to remove the silt from the water.  Dimensions are indicative. The size will vary depending on the amount of water coming in through the inlet pipe. more than one tank can be used in series if the first tank does not remove all the impurities. The Desilting tank should be cleaned in the dry season every year. Water outlet from the last desilting tank in the series will be sent to the Recharge Pit

For details of Recharge Pit with inbuilt filter :

Water Harvesting: High Capacity Recharge Pit | Manohar Khushalani

CHENNAI: While homeowners and residents associations across the city are busy squabbling and haggling with water suppliers, ever since an acute shortage in supply began this summer, those living in an apartment complex in Kazhipattur have been able to keep away from this these troubles.

The 160 families residing at Akshaya Adora have not bought water in the last two years. Instead, they put together a robust water harvesting and recycling system that takes care of all their needs. Water drawn from borewells and an open well at their premises is recycled, eliminating the question of shortage.

Close to 1.5 lakh litres of water used by the residents on daily basis gets treated and harvested.

Read more….

http://www.newindianexpress.com/good-news/2019/jul/20/how-one-apartment-in-chennai-beat-water-crisis-2006540.html

Presented below are some design ideas in domestic Water Harvesting. The Dimensions are indicative and will vary as per local conditions and situation.

Above is a typical Domestic Water Harvesting Design for a terrace of 2500 Sq ft, with 800 mm of annual rainfall. This part of the article should be read in conjunction with Manohar Khushalani’s interview to ANI which can be read on this link

Manohar Khushalani recommends Water Harvesting at Community Level: ANI / Pioneer / New Indian Express / NDTV

Below are photographs of the outlets on the terrace.  In the photograph, the one on the right is the existing drain pipe. The one on the left is the new drain hole connected to Water Harvesting Structure.

As you can see the terrace is dirty. So block the left outlet. So that dirty water does not go to Water Harvesting Structure, but flows out side to street from the right outlet.

Now clean the terrace, which should preferably be done before the monsoons.

After the first rain, block the drain on the right side and open the left outlet so that rain flows through it to the Water Harvesting Structure for rest of the season.

All the drains from higher terraces will also be diverted like this to the structure

Finally all pipes drop their rainwater to the inlet of water harvesting structure. The video below shows the final route:

Finally watch the exhilarating experience of water cascading into your Water Harvesting Structure as you recharge Mother Earth so that it can quench the thirst of your grandchildren. Appropriately, in this video, below, you will hear the voice of a little girl crying out for her grandmother “Naani!! Naani!!”

Watch Rain Water Cascading Into the Womb of Mother Earth

Normally for a properly maintained domestic water harvesting pit a desilting tank is not required. For large capacity pits for societies and institutions see the details of a desilting tank on the next article in this seties

Water Harvesting: Desilting Tank for removal of suspended impurities | Manohar Khushalani

If there is a space crunch in installing a filter pit at your location, you can use a pipe filter  but the filter shown is far far better

Water Harvesting: Pipe Filters where there is a space crunch | Manohar Khushalani