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Recharge wells help recharge borewell on a farm
Mr Sanjeev Patil’s Sanyam Permaculture Farm is set on two plots of farmland adjacent to each other in Halligeri Village, Dharwad. Both plots are principally mango orchards. The smaller plot...
- Bengaluru
- Case Studies
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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- Water quality
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Water management at Ferns Residency layout
Introduction Ferns Residency is a residential layout in Kothanur in north-east Bangalore. It is 21 years old and is spread over 30 acres. It currently has 130 villas with 500...
- Bengaluru
- Case Studies
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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- Water quality
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Smart water meters in Astro Rosewood Regency
Introduction Astro Rosewood Regency, located on Sarjapur Road, Bengaluru, is an apartment complex of 188 flats, of which 175 are occupied. They use borewells and tanker water. However, 5 of...
- Bengaluru
- Integrated Urban Water Management
- Article
- Water quality
- Primer
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Water Demand
Understanding water demand Have you ever wondered how much water you use? Would you be able to estimate how much water do you actually need? In Indian cities, only a...
- Bengaluru
- Rainwater
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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- Primer
- Rainwater harvesting
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Rainfall
Our planet’s water circulates continuously from the atmosphere to land and oceans, and back again in a process known as the hydrological cycle. The hydrological cycle includes rainfall, percolation of...
- Bengaluru
- Groundwater
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- Water quality
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Aquifers
The word “groundwater” might conjure the image of a wide, subterranean sea or lake beneath our feet but this important water source is actually extracted from underground layers of water-bearing...
- Bengaluru
- Groundwater
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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- Campaign
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My Well My Life
This presentation gives examples of wells in use in different situations, from a house to an industry to a town.
- Bengaluru
- Integrated Urban Water Management
- Article
Bengaluru Water Context
Bengaluru Water Context- Click here to see the Bengaluru Water Story in videos Table of Contents Introduction Historical Context Demographic and Landuse Context Ecological Context Bengaluru Topology Bengaluru Rainfall Bengaluru Geology Bengaluru Lakes...
- Bengaluru
- Case Studies
- Rainwater
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- Rainwater harvesting
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Rainwater Harvesting at Mr Abhishek Oommen’s house
Mr Abhishek Oomen built a house in OMBR layout in the northeast of Bengaluru. The construction of the house started in 2017 and was completed in 2018. The house has...
- Chennai
- Article
Note on Constructed wetlands
NOTE ON CONSTRUCTED WETLAND TREATMENT SYSTEM – A NATURE BASED SOLUTION FOR TREATING CONTAMINATED URBAN RUNOFF AT ONE OF THE INLETS OF SELAIYUR LAKE IN CHENNAI, IMPLEMENTED THROUGH FUNDING SUPPORT...
- Chennai
- Article
Write up for the media on RCWs on roads Wipro small grant
NOTE ON DIGGING RECHARGE WELLS ON PUBLIC ROADS WITH PARTIAL FUNDING FROM WIPRO FOUNDATION In Chennai, almost all the roads, big and small, are covered with either bitumen or concrete...
- Bengaluru
- Groundwater
- Article
- Primer
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Borewells
The borewell is now perhaps the most common source of water in urban India. These are wells dug deep into the ground to tap into water-bearing soil or rock layers...
- Bengaluru
- Groundwater
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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- Water quality
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Recharge well primer
Recharge Wells Building water resilience and sustainable water management. Biome Environmental Trust, Bengaluru. This document has been made to be used as a community resource and is meant to evolve...
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An open well beside a lake provides water to a school
Kaikondrahalli in southeast Bengaluru is a parched area. BWSSB does not supply water here, and borewells around 1000 feet deep are common. But there is a major water source here...
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- Groundwater
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Rainwater Harvesting 3: How to recharge groundwater
Table of contents Introduction Recharge through recharge wells can serve two very important purposes: first to control and mitigate flooding and secondly to help ensure rainwater percolates into groundwater. Groundwater...
- Bengaluru
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These apartments used water metering to reduce demand
With sub-metering, a few Bengaluru apartments have reduced their water demand and better managed their water scarcity If you live in an apartment that does not receive BWSSB water supply,...
- Bengaluru
- Case Studies
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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A community practices integrated water resources management
On a Saturday morning, K P Singh is surrounded by residents of a neighbouring layout asking questions. Singh, middle-aged and bespectacled, is a resident of Rainbow Drive (RBD), an upscale...
- Bengaluru
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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- Water supply
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Managing Demand Part 1: How to reduce demand
Given the severe water shortage we face in cities, reducing water demand is no longer a choice, but a given. Whether you live in an individual house or an apartment,...
- Bengaluru
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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How to get people on board
To implement any water reform in an apartment or layout – be it metering, rainwater harvesting or sewage treatment – the entire community has to be on board with the...
- Bengaluru
- Wastewater
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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How to treat wastewater at home
If you live in an independent house, wastewater treatment and reuse is a good way to meet a large part of your water needs. Wastewater, in this context, refers only...
- Bengaluru
- Wastewater
- Integrated Urban Water Management
- Article
- Primer
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Wastewater Treatment and Reuse
In most Indian cities wastewater is a common feature – we see it overflowing our drains and lying stagnant in puddles. Despite the problems it causes, wastewater has hidden potential....
- Bengaluru
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- Groundwater
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Well stories
India is a groundwater based civilisation, and wells were always a part of people’s lives. With the advent of piped water, wells slowly disappeared from people’s imaginations. This section hopes...
- Bengaluru
- Case Studies
- Groundwater
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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This community recharges into aquifer, uses open wells to meet need
As communities dig borewells hundreds of feet deep in the desperate search for water, the idea of simply digging a traditional open well may not cross anyone’s minds. That water...
- Bengaluru
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- Seepage
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Seepage Management at Safina Towers
Safina Towers is a 13-year-old multi-storied office building with two towers on Ali Asker Road, Bengaluru. Set in a 2.5-acre plot, with two parking basements, upper and lower, Safina Towers...
- Bengaluru
- Groundwater
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- Primer
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Open Wells
An open well is simply a hole in the ground that allows access to water underground. Open wells are used to extract water found at the shallowest level in that...
- Bengaluru
- Case Studies
- Surface water
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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A lake is rejuvenated for people and nature
In Bengaluru, lakes often lay trapped under layers of water hyacinth, a sure sign of how polluted they are. But in Jakkur lake, weeds and algae signify cleanliness; these have...
- Bengaluru
- Case Studies
- Rainwater
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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A direct use rainwater harvesting system in a residence
About five years ago, Gayatri Pandit set up a Direct Use rainwater harvesting (RWH) system in her home, concerned that too much rainwater was getting wasted. After a good rain,...
- Bengaluru
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- Wastewater
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A wastewater treatment system in a residence
Ravi Iyer’s home is surrounded by a bright green garden and lawn even at the peak of summer. Plantains and other trees, flowering plants and creepers thrive here. Located along...
- Bengaluru
- Article
- Water quality
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Drinking Water Standards
When we think about preventing water contamination, the first thing that comes to mind is boiling water to destroy microbes. Avoiding microbial contamination is the reason we avoid water from...
- Bengaluru
- Groundwater
- Integrated Urban Water Management
- Article
- Water supply
- Campaign
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About the Million Wells campaign
The ‘Million Wells for Bengaluru’ campaign was started by the Biome Environmental Trust in July 2015 and is expected to run for ten years, till 2025. The explicit objective of...
- Bengaluru
- Case Studies
- Rainwater
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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Impact story: Rainwater harvesting in Rajiv Nagar School
- Bengaluru
- Case Studies
- Wastewater
- Rainwater
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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A combined wastewater treatment and rainwater harvesting system
The household of Mahalakshmi Jayaram, an architect, is nearly independent when it comes to water. Wastewater is treated and reused here, and rainwater is directly used and also recharged into...
- Bengaluru
- Groundwater
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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- Water quality
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The ground beneath our feet: A borewell primer
- Bengaluru
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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- Policies and regulations
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Managing Demand 2: How to meter and set tariffs
In most cities, municipal water utilities do not charge for the true cost of water – you may have noticed this when you look at a BWSSB water bill, water...
- Bengaluru
- Wastewater
- Integrated Urban Water Management
- Article
- Primer
- English
Wastewater
We complain about the muck that our cities are mired in, often forgetting that it is us who generate it – untreated sewage from households is the biggest source of...
- Bengaluru
- Surface water
- Article
- Primer
- Lakes
- English
Lakes
Lakes are large water bodies surrounded by land. They are found in all kinds of environments including plains, mountains and deserts and can also vary greatly in size and depth....
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- Groundwater
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A revived open well meets the water needs of an apartment complex
When Mourya Jayaram found that the plot in Kaikondarahalli once had an open well, he was fairly confident that it would have water. Mourya’s company, the builder group Gravity Infrastructures,...
- Bengaluru
- Groundwater
- Rainwater
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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- Rainwater harvesting
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Rainwater Harvesting 1: The basics
Imagine if we could get our water for free – no payment to municipal agencies or private tankers, or having to buy cans of drinking water. Rain Water Harvesting (RWH),...
- Bengaluru
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- Rainwater
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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This home harvests rainwater, has used no municipal water in 10 years!
Lying at the corner of a quiet residential lane in Vidyaranyapura, R Balasubramaniam’s house is anything but plain. Greenery surrounds the two-storeyed orange-painted house, unlike the more sober buildings nearby....
- Bengaluru
- Rainwater
- Integrated Urban Water Management
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Rainwater Harvesting 2: How to store and reuse rainwater
The main components of a rainwater harvesting system designed to directly reuse rainwater are: Catchment: The area where rain falls and the runoff from which it is collected, stored and...