Rainwater in the society is mainly used for washing utensils, gardening, flushing and cleaning of cars
The Rolling Hills Co-operative Housing Society in LIC Colony, Borivali, is very well familiar with the concept of rainwater harvesting. In 2002, when the BMC was struggling with making rainwater harvesting mandatory for new housing societies, Rolling Hills had already gone ahead in ensuring that rain water was tapped and reused, over the borewell they had dug up in 1983.
"Rainwater was wasted, it would just overflow the drains or run into the fields. The BMC was not able to meet the increasing water demand. They would supply a certain amount of water to LIC reservoir from where it was supplied to us. This is how we thought of rainwater harvesting. This way we could save water and we stopped relying on the BMC or tanker," said AH Suktankar, former secretary of the society.
The society with about 50 flats then decided to pool in Rs 1 lakh to have the system in place. "We already had a 10,000 litre tank when we had dug a borewell. So we had to bear the cost of the pipe work. Our overhead tanks are partitioned with one-third water for rainwater or tubewell water and have separate taps for the same. All we did was prepare a layout for tapping rainwater from our terrace to the tank," shared Suktankar.
Rainwater in the society is mainly used for washing utensils, gardening, flushing and cleaning of cars. "We cannot use it for cooking and drinking or in washing machine because of soil content in it, but it is used for other purposes," said Suktankar. We had to fix the some taps and pipelines when the borewell was dug, so there is different line to provide that water.
The society like any other buildings in the LIC Colony with natural slopes had enough water flowing in the monsoon. "We ensured that it did not concretise substantial area of the society. The aim was to collect rainwater so that it replenishes the ground water and helps recharge it for tubewell. A lot of our society part is still earth," said Yogesh Dhanji, chairperson of Rolling Hills CHS.
Every monsoon the society harvests over 2.40 lakh litres at least from rainwater. The tank overflows in two hours of heavy rain. "There is scope to harvest another 20,000 litres per day if need be," said Suktankar.
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 "Rolling Hills Co-operative Housing Society")
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