A don engineers solution to water problem

Raila village near Pilani in Rajasthan is a good example of how a little bit of institutional help can transform the life of the people.

Throughout the year, villagers had to essentially depend on the limited water provided by the Government Rural Water Supply/Public Health Engineering Department as the ground water had high fluoride content.

Apart from the limited availability of water, the government water supply
depended on the availability of the pump man, electricity and condition of the pump. Many times, the tube-wells would go dry during summer aggravating the problem. The villagers had to trek in order to collect water from nearby places.

Prof Rajiv Gupta, Professor of Civil Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology Institute of Technology and Science-Pilani (BITS), has now found a way to overcome the drinking water problem of the village. He has developed a project called Aakash Ganga which besides harvesting the rain water, provides a network of tanks for community use and developing vegetation in the village. In the scheme, storage tanks are connected to rooftops of their houses which not only addresses the individual water needs but also the collective needs of the village.

Aakash Ganga, which has been implemented in six villages in Rajasthan-- Pilani, Raila, Harinagar, Lasedi, Indrasar and Kaakreu Kalan-- is a replicable and self-sustainable rainwater harvesting scheme. It has a multi-tier architecture consisting of a “griha” (home) tank, attached to an individual house, “samooh” (collective) tank for collecting overflows from a group of houses, “sanjha” (common) tank for collecting overflows from “somooh” tanks and other community structures, and a “gram” (village) reservoir, a large capacity reservoir for the village.

Aakash Ganga uses GIS (Geographical Information System and GA (Genetic Algorithm) for optimising the water collection network and locating storage tanks. The “griha” tank, with a storage capacity of 20,000 litres, has been designed to meet the drinking water needs of a house for 12 months with average rainfall of 400 mm.

The network can be scaled to suit a larger community.  The network of pipes has filters and perforations on the rooftop which facilitate collection of run off water and carry it to the gram tanks. Prof Gupta periodically collects water samples from the tanks and analyses them in the BITS laboratory to check whether the water is potable. Besides, he is working on a hand-held instrument which will help the villagers to check the water quality.

Munni Devi, wife of Ram Singh of Raila village, says: “ Yeh pani ko nahane keliye, peene keliye, pasuvon ko pilate hein; kapda dhote hein; aur khud ham bhi peete hein. Pehle matka se pani late the. Who bhi kabhi ata ta, who bhi light ka upper nirbar” (We use this water for drinking, washing and for the consumption for our cows. Earlier, we used to bring water in our pots from a government water supply scheme. That again, used to be erratic. Water availability depended on the electricity). In these ares,  villagers hardly get power for four hours a day.

Vikas of the same village says: “This scheme has transformed our lives. Earlier, we used to spend a major part of the time for bringing water. Now, we could devote that time for our agriculture and other works”, he says.

Aakash Ganga was implemented in the six villages with funding from World Bank (Rs 1 crore ) and the Rajasthan Association of North America (Rs 23 lakh). House owners contribute about 15 per cent to 50 per cent of the cost of the project and this can be in the form of labour, material or money. The remaining cost is borne by the Aakash Ganga project.

The Union Government’s Department of Science and Technology,  has sanctioned additional Rs 60 lakh for expansion and perfection of this project.   Prof Rajiv Gupta said:
“Aakash Ganga is a comprehensive scheme which provides a network of tanks for providing water to the entire village, besides harvesting rainwater. It uses GIS images for the design and implementation of tanks for improving the functional efficiency of the system". It would use a wireless network to collect information about the distribution of water, tank leakage and maintenance which would go a long way in optimising the water usage.

Prof Gupta has devised a numbering system for the tanks, based on latitudinal and longitudinal position, so that any addition/deletion can be done smoothly. Another facet of Aakash Ganga is the vegetation it supports as a result of which the villagers can grow a lot of low water depe­ndent plants such as amla, beri, lemon and olive in the vicinity of the tanks and income generated can be used to maintain the scheme and make it sustainable.

Prof Gupta added that Aakash Ganga is scalable and is replicable in any rural or urban setting. The project team will also develop a software which will work as a tool for a junior engineer to replicate the scheme for other villages of the state. Above all, Aakash Ganga is in perfect harmony with the village cultural ethos since the scheme provides facilities on all tanks for performing Kuan Pooja ceremonies which are performed in auspicious occasions in Rajasthan, and the spin off being that it ensures cleanliness and hygiene near the tanks, Prof Gupta added.