College Saves Lakhs of Rupees On Water

A 3-acre pond dug in the Yenepoya Medical College 15 kms from Mangalore is catching run-off from about 15 acres of the campus and from an equal area of their neighbourhood. It has already saved the institution a substantial sum on getting water from outside.

Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka enjoys highest rainfall in the State. Its annual average of 4000 mms provides 1.6 lakh liters per acre. Yet Yenepoya medical college that has a sprawling campus of 33 acres had to bring water from outside for 8 months a year! Monthly expenditure came to around to Rs. 6 lakhs.
Thankfully, a massive RWH project was planned and implemented at Yenepoya. A 3-acre pond was dug at the lowest elevation. This pond catches run-off from about 15 acres of the campus and from an equal area of its neighbourhood. It has a capacity to hold 3 crore litres of rain. “Just a week after the onset of monsoon, this started overflowing”, recalls Narayana Bhat, Yenepoya’s project manager.
On the lower elevation of the pond, a huge embankment - bund - has been built using soil. To cut-off the seepage, an LDPE sheet, 500 gsm (grams per square meter) was inserted into the deep trench dug in the middle of the bund. It touches the hard rock layer below. The erosion-prone sloppy portions of the pond are protected by a lining of coir geo-textiles.
In the middle, there was an old open well, 35 feet in depth. It is retained there. Though the stored rainwater is a little reddish in the beginning, the well water, well filtered by the soil around remained crystal clear.
Student strength is 1000. Two yielding bore wells provide about 10,000 litres an hour each. The yield comes down in summer. Daily fresh water requirement comes to 4 lakh litres.
This would have doubled but for water reuse being done in a big way. The campus has two sewage treatment plants. Since its inception in 1999, all used water from hostels, quarters etc is treated and pumped back. Total daily output from two plants is about 4 lakh litres. This is used for irrigation and toilet flushing. As such, fresh water is seldom required for these purposes. Apart from these, areca plantation, an important cash crop of the district, is coming up using this treated water. “We use manure produced in treatment plants alone and nothing else”, points out horticulture assistant Vasanth. “It appears as if it provides all the required nutrients.”
This year, for the first time, they could give nearly half a year rest for the bore wells.
The new earthen bund’s height decreases after about a year. This is due to seasoning and compacting of lose soil. Next year, this will be raised by another one meter by giving an additional LDPE sheet and putting more soil on the top of the bund. That would store one crore litres extra water. One more hydrological cycle—that’s two monsoons—is needed for the pond to stabilize. In summer, apart from stored rainwater, there will be inflow into the pond.

Constructed at a cost of Rs.25 lakhs, the pond has already paid back Rs. 10 lakh s. By next year, it would have paid back the whole amount invested. K S Hegde Medical Academy (KSHEMA) and PA College of Engineering in the neighbourhood have reportedly started reusing water after purification. It’s high time big institutions in this area start addressing the water scarcity in a sustainable way.

– Shree Padre for India Together

Shree Padre proposed a magazine by farmers, for farmers and the first issue of Adike Patrike rolled off the press in November 1988. Most could not read or write. He started workshops for farmers to make them read and write, so that they could handle reporting and writing for the magazine.
Adike Patrike now has a circulation of 75,000. It is priced at Rs. 7 and is supported by ethical advertising. The magazine has a cult following among farmers. Shree Padre also works on soil and water conservation in Karnataka and Kerala. Shree Padre successfully initiated a campaign against the hazardous endosulfan spraying (which has had serious repercussions on the health of the villagers. ) on cashew plantations in Kasargod.