Water conservation: Bangalore apartment leads by example

As summer approaches, borewells across the city dry up and tankers are summoned. However, this summer, 32 residents of Mana Sarovar Apartment in Doddanekkundi, Marathahalli will not have to fret about 24/7 water supply.

For people of Mana Sarovar, water crisis and hefty electricity bills are things of the past, thanks to the foresight of a resident. A mechanical engineer, Kannan Venkitachalam, found a solution to both the problems in one shot.

“The apartment’s electricity bill for the common area was very high. After a little investigation, I realised that it is because of the automatic motor pumping system installed in the building,” said Venkitachalam.

The system automatically pumped up water every time the water level dropped in the overhead tank of the apartment.

“While the sensor in the system ensured that the water levels in the tank were accurate, it did not count the amount of water being pumped. Also,  long hours of pumping almost dried up our borewells and we needed to depend on water tankers in the summer,” he said.

“We tried several methods to resolve the issue. At first, we tried to pump water in regular intervals —- like one-and-a-half hours in the morning and night, and one hour in the evening. But it failed as many residents started complaining that they did not get enough water,” he said.

The method also resulted in water wastage. “People began to store water as it was pumped only for limited hours. Sometimes, the stored water went unused for a couple of days, and they would throw it out saying it was unfit for using,” he said.

Venkitachalam searched the Internet to find a better way to deal with the issue. “During my search, I read about water meters used in many places in Chennai,” he said.

Making the residents agree to instal separate water meters in all homes was not easy. “I went to each house and asked them a couple of simple questions. I asked them to give another solution for the problem if they are not ready to install water meters,” he said.

“A few days later, 30 families staying in the building agreed on my proposal. Two households rejected it because of the amount of money involved,” he said.

With the help of a plumber, Venkitachalam came up with a proposal with an estimation of Rs3 lakh. “We set up water meters in five homes in the beginning. Their bills ranged from Rs100 to Rs2,000 based on the use. We then discussed ways to reduce the bill amount. Best practices were shared between the residents. We started to monitor and control our water usage, and as a result, our electricity bills also came down. The point is, once a commodity is billed, we try to keep its usage to a minimum,” he said.

Today, Mana Sarovar has water supply 24/7. “But we still depend on water tankers. This is to use less amount of water from our borewells to recharge them,” he said.