Chennai - Rain water harvesting Rules


Rainwater harvesting has now been legislated by the State Assembly and made compulsory.


The regulations are being framed and the draft has been posted on the website of the BWSSB at http://bwssb.org/pdf%20files/RWH%20regulations.pdf for comments and suggestions by the citizens. These will be incorporated before being notified.


Some of the salient points of the draft regulations are:


* it is mandatory, after notification of the rules, for all new constructions with site area more than 1200 sq.ft. to have a rainwater harvesting system


* it will be mandatory for all old houses with more than 2,400 sq.ft. site area to have a rainwater harvesting structure


* the nature of rainwater harvesting has also been specifically defined and is specified as 20 litres of storage or recharge for every square metre of roof area and 10 litres of storage or recharge for every square metre of open area.


Rainwater harvesting was already mandatory for BBMP plan approval in terms of Annexure 32 of the building byelaws approved in February 2004 for sites larger than 200 sq.m. It will now be reinforced by its incorporation in the BWSSB rules.


One example of the rainwater harvesting system as incorporated by an institution is seen at ACCEPT society located on the periphery of the city at Doddagubbi on about 3.50 acres of land and not connected to the BWSSB network.


It has to manage all its water requirements with groundwater.

Use of filters

Rooftop rainwater harvesting is done for the main building, the conference room and the cowshed. 10” PVC gutters are fixed on two sides and rear side of the building.


After the first rain separation, the water is filtered by overground filters. Six filters of different capacities have been installed at various positions.


All the filtered water flows into a 25KL underground sump through underground piping (the sump roof is also serving as a training area and a good platform for drying utensils).


A submersible pump has been placed in this sump to pump the water to the main sump of 13 KL capacity.


The water from this sump is pumped to overhead tanks. Close to seven lakh litres of rainwater will be harvested from the roof alone and there is potential to harvest another 20 to 30 lakh litres from the site area.


Provision is made to either pump the harvested water to the main sump or to take the water for gardening through a valve mechanism. Details of the catchment and storages are given in the table.


www.rainwaterclub.org


www.arghyam.org


zenrainman@gmail.com


Ph: 080-23644690


Source: The Hindu Property Plus

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