Siruthuli-Rotary Effort To Rejuvenate Rainwater Harvesting Structures
Work to rejuvenate rainwater harvesting structures in progress on D.B. Road in Coimbatore on Thursday. The South West Monsoon may set in only in the first week of June, but the city is already witnessing efforts to tap through harvesting measures whatever amount of rain it will provide to the city. Siruthuli, a public initiative to conserve water resources, and the Rotary Clubs in the city have teamed up to rejuvenate 50 rain water harvesting structures put up along roads and at in open spaces. These are among the 150 structures that Siruthuli put up in 2005, with the Coimbatore Corporation meeting most of the project cost of Rs.50 lakh.
Now, the Rotary Clubs have offered Rs.5,000 for each of the 50 structures that include a bore well and harvesting pits with filters. The work will be evenly spread across all the four zones in the city, according to Project Co-ordinator of Siruthuli K. Mylswami. After getting the approval of the Corporation, Siruthuli has begun works to remove silt, clean the filters and replenish this with filtering materials such as pebbles. There are also plans for flushing bore wells choked by blocks. “While these 50 structures will be in a good condition before the monsoon sets in, we also plan to cover the other structures by the end of May,” Mr. Mylswami says.
The works are already on near The Eye Foundation on R.S. Puram. Some of the other structures were near the Income-Tax office on Race Course Road and also further down the road. Shastri Maidan in R.S. Puram has two structures that suck in all the water the monsoon provides. Mr. Mylswami recalls that water used to stagnate on the ground for a week before the structures had been put up.
Similar structures have been put up across the city after studying the water stagnation pattern. These are areas where water was wasted in stagnation or surface run-off. Since 2005, water goes into the aquifers through the harvesting structures. Siruthuli is studying water samples lifted once in six months from 20 “observatory bore wells” (among the 150 structures) to monitor the quality of the ground water. Along with this, any fluctuation in the ground water level is also being studied. “This is helping us get a clear picture of the ground water situation in the city,” he says.
