Retired lecturer strives to improve groundwater through RHP

Hyderabad: Inspired by the water harvesting initiative by the Government of Karnataka and Central GroundWater Department in Tumkuru district, P Ranga Reddy, a retired lecturer in Chemistry and former deputy secretary in the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) has taken up rain harvesting on a mission mode.

Sharing his experience, Ranga Reddy said a bore-well in my house providing water to about 25 people had gone dry in 2012. This had forced me to use about 20 tankers per month. It was then that I had come across the water harvesting initiative taken up at Tumkuru in Karnataka.

When repeated efforts to improve ground water levels failed, the Karnataka government had requested the Central Ground Water Department to resolve the issue. The CGWD had made a canal drawing water from a distance source and injected the same into the ground. This had helped ground water table to get recharged. He says, “I got inspiration and had spent only Rs 3,000 to construct a rain harvesting pit (RHP) at my house in 2013. With this, groundwater level is increased.’’

This success at home had made me take up the same in the PNR Colony when I had become the president of the welfare association. The proposal had been discussed before the Hastinapur Central Resident's Welfare Association, an umbrella association for all the colonies in it.

A representation had been submitted to the GHMC in August, 2013. But nothing had happened until 2016. The new government had announced sanctioning of the community rain harvesting structures and I made a representation once again, he said.

I had re-represented the issue in February, 2016 to the water conservation wing of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) and inspection was done in March and construction of 11 rain water harvesting structures were completed by the end of May the same year, Ranga Reddy said. Of the 11 rain harvesting structures four are in PNR colony, two each in Hastinapur and Hastinapur extension.

Two injunction wells were also sanctioned, he said.Prior to these activities the groundwater table in the area was about 230 feet in March 2016. After the rainy season, the water table rose up to 17 feet and the same continued till November, 2016. In January 2017, the water was available at 22 feed and it had come down to 40 feet by March. And, “the current water table depth this May is about 100 feet, Ranga Reddy said. Apart from this, two small parks are developed in the colony.

By VRC Phaniharan