Pune: After facing severe water scarcity during the summer, housing societies across Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad have now planning to install rainwater harvesting systems. At present, there are about 22,500 housing societies and 15,000 apartments in Pune. Among these, only 20-25% has rainwater harvesting systems in place.
"Tankers availability during the summer was a big challenge. We had to ration out water in the society because of supply constraints. The society is now keen to be self-sufficient and ensure no wastage of rainwater," said a resident of a society in Pashan, who did not want to be named.
"There are many societies that now want to install rainwater harvesting systems. Awareness on this topic is increasing and both youngsters as well as senior citizens are coming forward to take up these measures," said Suhas Patwardhan, chairman of Pune District Co-Operative Housing Societies and Apartments Federation. These societies are now moving forward and conducting discussions with consultants for installing rooftop harvesting plans to preserve rainwater.
Colonel Shashikant Dalvi (retired) said he received many queries and there are many challenges as well. He implemented first rooftop rainwater harvesting system in his Vimannagar society in 2003. "I have received a huge number of queries from societies for rainwater harvesting.
They, however, face costing as a major challenge. The cost of laying the system is typically calculated on sqft basis and that could be in the range of Rs 30-Rs 50 per sqft of the rooftop area. However, what people don't understand is that the return on investment can be realised within 4-6 months of using it," Col Shashikant Dalvi (retired), national coordinator of water conservation , said.
He has helped 400-500 buildings in implementing rainwater harvesting systems in Pune. Having faced severe water shortage and spending around Rs 1.5 lakh every summer for water tanker, Ganesh Residency in Pimple Saudagar installed a rainwater harvesting system five years ago.
Charuhas Kulkarni, committee member at Ganesh Residency, said, "We had spent about Rs 50,000 to install a rainwater harvesting system. It has been a game-changer for us. We have never needed a tanker in these five years.
Every year before the monsoon we clean up the pits and do maintenance of the pipes." Avelino Noronha, secretary at Kumar Sublime in Kondhwa Khurd, said the society has deployed rainwater harvesting for over a decade. It has also fitted low flow fixtures like water aerators across the society to minimize usage of water.
The society's sewage has been treated at the sewage plant and gray water was supplied back for flushing and gardening usage..
