BU carves out niche for others in Rain water harvesting.

Article by Niranjan N Kaggere

Bangalore: What Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote in his 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' Water, Water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.... seems to be boomeranging in these days. With the increase in population over the years, demand for water has also increased. Only difference is that then Mariner was surrounded by plethora of water and today we are surrounded by abbreviating water bodies. And recharge ground water and harvest rain water seems to be the contemporary chant of social activists.
If we rummage through the history, rain water harvesting is not new to us and we have been in touch with the concept since ancient times. But it has only community applications and never catered to domestic requirements. But Bangalore University with an innovative measure to enrich its campus with enough water bodies to feed its habitants, has carved out a niche to others in the field of rain water harvest and management.
Under the scheme implemented by the Central Sector Scheme funded by Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India through Central Ground Water Board on Jnanabharathi campus at a cost of about 45 lakhs seems to have done miraculous work on its premises as the campus's groundwater table has gone up by 7 to 8 meters. explaining the results of the project former secretary, Department of Ecology and Environment, government of Karnataka Y N Yellappa Reddy, who was the adviser for the programme said that even the adjacent Vrishabhavathi river will no longer a threat to the existing bore wells on the campus since the natural surface run-off on the land has been harnessed
Jnanabharathi campus which has a population of about 5000 with the per capita consumption of 120 litres per day and an additional 20 percent for other purposes. Now with the successful implementation of the programme the water crisis on the campus has been averted. According to Prof M S Thimmppa, Vice Chancellor of BU, the project was taken up under two phases after a feasibility study by the central ground water board officials.
"Under phase 1, three check dams were built covering 1 sq km and in phase 2, two check dams were built with a catchment area of 0.6 sq km. In an another major initiative roof top rain water-harvesting has also been implemented to collect rain water and the cost of harvesting altogether cost approximately Rs 2 per cubic metre of water." said Prof Thimmappa.
Finding enough water resources for daily purposes, some measures have also been extended to neighbouring SAI campus. As a result the water level in the bore wells raised to 5 cu m per hour from 2 cu m per hour. Even the chemical quality analysis of the ground water samples collected in the area has revealed that no deterioration of water has taken place.
Bangalore University area with a rain fall of around 900 mm a year, a total of 6,480cu m of water can be harvested annually through the present system. When many organisations spearheading the event to popularise the method of rain water harvesting without adding much to it, Bu has taken a revolutionising step in its efforts to create awareness about the eco system among the people and students.