Ashram has ashray for water also

The rain water from the foof is channeled through undergroud pipe lines to the dam. A filteration plant purifies the water and pumps into storage tanks for use at various locations of the ashram

Karuna Sudhajalam  (divine water) sounds good and works well. It is a rainwater harvesting system and a Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO) assisted project, implemented by Santhigiri Ashram, Trivendrum in Kerala. Guru Shri Brahmashree Karunakara founder of the Santhigri Ashram first desired to implement a system to harvest rainwater because the ashramm has an ever increasing numbers of devotees visiting the campus and the existing water sources were inadequate to meet the rising demand. So the ashram had no other option than to adopt water harvesting for augmenting the water availability. Secondly, Kerala is facing acute shortage of water due to indiscriminate use, poor management and immense growth of construction activities.

Thus, with the financial and technical assistance by HUDCO, Thiruvananthapuram, the ashram can now annually harvest about 50,000 liters of water.

A quarry in front of the ashram has been utilised to construct a mini dam to harvest rainwater. The rainwater from the roof is channeled through underground pipelines to the dam. To purify the water a filtration plant is installed and pumps are used to elevate water to storage tanks for various locations of the ashram. The total roof area of the premises is 8,000 cubic metre (cum) and the area available for storage is 5,000 cum. If 1,000 liters per cum is the storage capacity than about 5 million liters of water can be harvested annually in the mini dam. It is the success of the system that now the ashram can save Rs 10 lakh per year for its water requirement at the rate Rs 0.10 per litre fromexternal sources. The ashram requires 1 lakh litres of water per day.

The total expenditure behind this achievement is Rs 54.50 lakhs for the construction of rainwater storage tank, pipeline, delivery arrangements with filtration plant and contingencies. While HUDCO contributed about 70 per cent of the total project cost, the rest was contributed by the ashram.The entire project expenditure will be recovered in the longer run through savings, which previously was being diverted towards procuring water for the ashram. This system is useful for premises with large campus and more water demand.

Salient features of the system:

Direct saving of Rs 10 lakhper annum on water expenses.
A quarry infront of the ashram has been converted for constructing a mini - dam to harvest rainwater.

For further information:

The half-round PVC rainwater system

Rooftop rainwater collection: Using half round PVC rainwater system

Ground water recharge using PVC half round rainwater collection system

Azad Barish PLast Ltd, a Mumbai based company has introduced the half round PVC rainwater systems for efficient rainwater harvesting. It is a system which is designed for the efficient disposal or harvesting of rainwater from all low and high rise domestic buildings and sheds. This system has an effective way to harvest rainwater as it has standardised sections, like the halfround channel in the range of 180 mm and 140 mm to collect rainwater draining from roof or slopes. These are connected to pipes, which transport the rainwater to a storage tank or otherwise to a borewell in case of recharging purposes.

The system comprises a wide range of socket fittings for use with plain-ended pipe. In addition there is a range of fittings for connection to other materials. The system can be specified for use in the building, industry, combining the rainwater harvesting design with PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastic moulding. These systems can be customised or installed to recharge bore wells to avoid scarcity of water during dry seasons also.

In this system few essential steps have been taken to provide maximum collection and minimum overflow. These systems are designed to a rainfall intensity of 75 mm/hour, so that the overflow will not cause damage within the building.

The advantages of this system:
It has high dimensional standard, which gives leakproof joints;
For channelising the water, PVC pipes are used therefore no galvanic action occurs due to corrosion resistance: and,
It has good flow properties compared to GI (galvanised iron) and asbestos cement systems and the rubber ring seal jointing provides cushioning during in change in climatic conditions.

For further information contact:
Azad Barish Plast
Mehta Estate
Near German Remedies,
Chakala, Andheri (E)
Mumbai–93.
Tel: 022–8212223/837
Fax: 022-835 6859
E-mail: azadbarish@vsnl.com
Website: www.azadbarish.com