RAINWATER HARVESTING AT

TEMPLE TREES APARTMENTS

- The RWH Team

THE SCHEMEA clean roof to collect rainwater

First Flush filter tank

MAIN SUMP

Recharge pit for Borewell

We have in a total roof area of 30,000 sft which could yield 30 lac litres of water per year. Our target is to harvest this entire roof water and use 25 lac litres for our regular consumption. We will divert the remaining 5 lac litres to the Borewell recharge pit which will help in improving the water table.

FIRST FLUSH FILTER TANK (FFL)

The FFL tank is a 10ft x 10ft x 6 ft tank built with brick and plastered to prevent any seepage into the soil. There are two sets of an inlet / outlet chambers each having a capacity to filter 10000 liters of water and send it out to the Main Sump.

FIRST FLUSH FILTER TANK (FFL)

The FFL Tank receives the Rain water through two inlet pipes. The first two chambers are equipped with pop up fittings to filter any sediments, leaves in the first rain water. The second two chambers are filled with filter media consisting of gravel and jelly that filters the water fully before being sent to the Sump.

PIPE WORK CONNECTIONS – A BLOCK

The A Block pipe work goes directly to the FFL Tank along the ground level . A portion of the A Block water also goes to the Recharge pit.

PIPE WORK CONNECTIONS- B BLOCK

Frontal Pipe work in B Block is provided with 6 No.s of “POP UP” filters that take filtered water directly to the Main sump

PIPE WORK CONNECTIONS- C BLOCK

The Pipe work for C Block goes all the way from the front side of the block to the rear side of the block. Note the clever way of camouflaging the 4” pipe along the edge of the front façade of the building.

PIPE WORK CONNECTIONS- REAR SIDE

The Pipe work on the rear side of all the A,B&C blocks runs from C Block to A Block . To enable the rain water flow towards the FFL, the pipe work is at 4 ft height behind the C Block and is at ground level behind the A Block. This Pipe work terminates at the Chamber

PIPE WORK CONNECTIONS- THE SUMP

The Pipe work to the sump is from two different directions. The first one is a 4” pipe which collects the water from all the 6 Pop Up filters (front side of B Block) and goes below the ground level straight to the Sump. The other inlet to the Sump is a 6”pipe running along the road in front of A Block, bringing the filtered water from FFL tank.

RECHARGE PIT FOR BOREWELL

The Recharge pit for Borewell is a10 ft deep well of Diameter 4 ft 6 in. The work involved digging this pit and inserting concentric cement rings. The bottom of the recharge pit is not plastered so that the water seeps into the sub soils and improves the water table. We had to dig across the road to lay the pipes coming from the front side of A Block to the recharge pit.

LATEST STATUS AS ON 1st June 2010

• The pipe work required for is completed.

• Pop up filters connected in the B Block are functional and they are already sending rainwater to the sump. This also means that the Penthouses in the front side of B Block ( 301,302…) have started harvesting the Rainwater from their terraces!

• Rainwater from A & C Blocks is still not being harvested since the FFL Tank is undergoing testing . Another one day, we are confident of catching the next rain and send this water to the FFL tank and from there to the Sump !

• Recharge pit which is meant to take the excess water from the a portion of A Block terraces, is ready and the pipe work will be completed within two days.

• And so …..

• Very soon we will be ready to receive the Monsoon 2010 !!!

WHAT NEXT & THE PHASE 2• On the 23rd May, the RWH team visited all the Penthouses in

the C Block and few in the B Block to inspect the terraces. Few observations:1. The general impression is that our terraces quite clean !! And that’s

very encouraging. Normal sweeping and cleaning with water will do.

2. Few terraces were covered with tiled roof and the rainwater goes over the building and is lost. We will take up in Phase 2, the fixing of “Gutters” to collect this water and harvest as much as possible.

3. Most of the terraces have lots of potted plants( justified!), but we request the residents to ensure that no harmful pesticides are used and also that a tray is arranged underneath each pot so that the soil does not get washed down during a heavy rain.

• We will appoint few “Anchors” who will arrange Awareness programs and monitor the terraces on a regular basis.

• This is just the beginning. We can do much more in Phase 2.