Rainwater Harvesting can definitely solve water scarcity 

 

More than 400 students residing in Sri Satya Sai School depends on rainwater, the only water source the school depends on. In fact, the school management distributes the water to the people living nearby.

On 17 May, 2016, Marc Sylvester, Program Manager of International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance; Narendra Man Dongol, Bimala Gurung and I, Manashree Newa (GUTHI Team) visited the school located at Tokha. The school covers 30 ropanis of total school area.

Mr. Dongol, Construction In charge had installed Rainwater Harvesting System and Wastewater Treatment System in the school. The school can be set as an example for other schools as well.

The school collects water with the application of basic rainwater harvesting system components: gutter, downpipe, first flush and storage tank. The buildings were fixed with pipes that collected rainwater. It is directly used for bathing and washing purposes whereas it is treated and filtered well before drinking.  There even were recharge pits and ponds at various locations within the school compound. If recharge pond gets overflowed, the system transfers excess water into the recharge well. There were drains around the area that diverted surface runoff into the recharge pond. The playground helped in the process of rainwater infiltration.

The wastewater treatment system was very impressive as well. There were separate collection chambers for grey water and black water. The grey water was first made free from grease through grease trap. The grey and black water were then sent to Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR) which contains five chambers. The effluent from ABR was then sent to Horizontal Reed Bed and then to Vertical Flow Reed Bed. Later, the final effluent was sent to aeration pond to aerate it so that the water can be used in agricultural fields.

The overall visit was very fruitful and eye-opening for me. Since I have a huge interest on Solid Waste Management, I found the waste water treatment plant really interesting. Watching the practical and effective application of the theories I have studied was really inspiring.

The only drawback I saw was that water filtration mechanism should be taken more care of.

I would like to thank GUTHI for providing me an opportunity to visit this amazing place.

By Manashree Newa, GUTHI