Blue Hyderabad Campaign: You can know how much water-stressed your area is

Hyderabad: Water depletion and wastage is increasingly becoming alarming in urban areas and the need has never been more urgent to tap every drop from available sources – water bodies as well as rainfall. What is more worrying is that even National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) has warned that India is facing worst water crisis in its history, and millions of lives and livelihoods are under threat.

Closer home, water scarcity every summer in the city fails to move the public and the government alike on the pertinent need for large-scale rainwater harvesting. "People residing in Madhapur alone spend close to Rs 20 crore per year for water tankers. Isn't this enough to think about conserving water?" asks Kalpana Ramesh, founder, The Rainwater Project. What you see, you believe, and if one can see for themselves the availability of water resources in their area it should make people take note and the GIS-based maps is what are doing the trick.

"We have mapped Madhapur, Gachibowli and Kondapur. GIS mapping has helped know exactly the state of the water resource and we now have a plan to save every drop of rainwater. Each rooftop can save 70% of the water for consumption. It is a matter of just connecting three things – rooftop, dead bore and sump." She added, "Along with community participation, we are working towards a healthy watershed in the Kondapur - Masjid Banda block. We have scientifically mapped the first block into four zones and interventions for respective zones."

As part of this initiative, Hyderabad is divided into 98 micro watersheds. Water conservation efforts are being initiated in selected basins (First basin being – Kondapur –Masjidbanda Basin) with the support of local communities, government agencies, concerned citizens, students, academic institutions, NGOs, corporate groups and others. After demonstrating processes and results in these basins, the Rainwater Project intends to reach out to all other basins in the city and eventually make Hyderabad city a water positive city. Construction of 40 rainwater harvesting structures with injection bores is underway.

EYEING EVERY DROP

♦ Construction of rainwater harvesting structures with public participation

♦ To involve everyone that has a rooftop, both individuals and organisations

♦ To enable rainwater harvesting and save huge amounts of water from major infra projects

♦To enable government buildings to implement rainwater harvesting

♦ To enable rainwater harvesting zones in GHMC parks across the city; To build rain centres in every block

♦ To enable training programmes for local plumber communities, schools and colleges

♦ Restoration and protection of surface water bodies including lakes, wells and ponds

♦ Helping communities achieve integrated water management

♦ To build a tech-enabled mobile water museum for state-wide awareness