The Koda family, residents of an apartment complex near Chennai’s IT corridor use only rainwater for 3 months a year. According to NDTV, there is no piped water supply in their area.
So when the city received its first rainfall on Saturday, the 56 families of this particular residential community collected thirty thousand litres of water in an hour or so.
According to NDTV, they did so by harvesting every drop of rain from their 25,000 sq.ft terrace.
Until last year, they used to let the rainwater recharge the groundwater table. This time around, they stored the water after treatment and then released the surplus into the ground.
Harsha Koda, the prime mover of the project and also Secretary of the residents association told reporters:
“When we recharge ground water we have to wait for six months for it to get into our wells to use that water. But on OMR (Old Mahabalipuram Road), where there is no piped water, we need water now. So if it rains today we collect the water and in two hours we get to use. Thirty thousand litres means we save around Rs. 5,000,
His wife, Prabha Koda also highlights the efficiency of this method of rainwater harvesting.
“From every square foot of terrace surface area, we can take one litre of water if it rains for an hour. It’s as simple. We have a 25,000 square foot terrace and we get at least 25,000 litres in an hour. If there’s a three-hour downpour we collect one lakh litres, completely filling up our tanks with rainwater sufficient for the 56 flats for three days,
This success in harvesting rainwater water that the Kodas of Sabari Terrace have found has also persuaded residential communities across the city of replicate the model. This is extremely essential, given that the city faces a 40% cut in piped water supply.
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