A

Seminar Report
On
A Case Study On Water
Conversion Through
Rainwater Harvesting In
Bangalore City
In a partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree in
Third Year of Civil Engineering
Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune

Submitted by
Yashvardhan R Todmal (20CV120)

Under the Guidance of

Dr. Suresh Parekar

Department of Civil Engineering

All India Shri Shivaji Memorial Society’s
College of Engineering, Pune- 411001
Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune
 ALL INDIA SHRI SHIVAJI MEMORIAL SOCIETY’S
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, PUNE- 411001

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Yashvardhan R Todmal(20CV120) have satisfactorily carried out the
TE Seminar work entitled A Case Study On Water Conversion Through Rainwater Harvesting
In Bangalore City .It is submitted in the partial fulfilment of the prescribed syllabus of
Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune for the academic year 2022 – 2023. This Seminar is a
record of candidate’s own work carried out by them under the supervision and guidance of Dr.
Suresh Parekar

Seminar Guide Internal Examiner

Dr. Suresh Parekar Prof. Sonal Chavan

Head Of Department Principal

Dr. P. B. Nangare Dr. D. S. Bormane

Place: - PUNE
Date: -
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This is a great opportunity to express my respect to all those people who have made this
Seminar possible & because of them my undergraduate experience has been one that I will
cherish forever.

I express my deepest gratitude to Dr. D. S. Bormane, Principal All India Shri Shivaji
Memorials Society's College of Engineering, Pune for providing facilities required for the
seminar in the institute.

I owe my deep sense of obligation & gratitude to my guide Dr . Suresh Parekar . I feel
extremely exhilarated to have completed seminar under her inspiring guidance. Her masterly
guidance and timely encouragement have infused courage in me to complete the work
successfully.

Finally, I wish to express my thanks to all the other staff members of Civil Department, and
Head of Department Dr.P.B.Nangare for their encouragement in this Seminar.

Thank you all

Yashvardhan R Todmal
(20CV120)

2
 ABSTRACT

Water scarcity is serious problem throughout the world for both urban and rural community.
Rainwater harvesting is defined as process of augmenting the natural infiltration of rainwater
or surface water into the ground by some artificial methods. In rooftop harvesting, the roof
becomes the catchments and the rainwater is collected from the roof of the house/building it
can either be stored in a tank or diverted to recharge pit etc. This method is less expensive and
very effective and if implemented properly helps in augmenting the ground water level of the
area. The methods of rooftop rainwater harvesting are recharge pit, recharge trenches, storage
tanks, abandoned dug wells, bore well. The present study tells us 2, 87, 536 litres of water
harvested per year in four numbers of underground storage tanks.

Rainwater harvesting, the small-scale collection and storage of runoff for irrigated agriculture,
is recognized as a sustainable strategy for ensuring food security, especially in monsoonal
landscapes in the developing world. In south India, these strategies have been used for
millennia to mitigate problems of water scarcity. However, in the past 100 years many
traditional rainwater harvesting systems have fallen into disrepair due to increasing dependence
on groundwater. With elevated declines in groundwater resources, there is increased effort at
the state and national levels to revive older systems. Critical to the success of such efforts is an
improved understanding of how these ancient water-provisioning systems function in
contemporary landscapes with extensive groundwater pumping and shifted climatic regimes.
Knowledge is especially lacking regarding the water-exchange dynamics of these rainwater
harvesting “tanks” at tank and catchment scales, and how these exchanges regulate tank
performance and catchment water balances. Here, we use fine-scale water level variations to
quantify daily fluxes of groundwater, evapotranspiration, and sluice outflows in four tanks over
the 2013 northeast monsoon season in a tank cascade that covers a catchment area of 28.2 km2.
Our results indicate a distinct spatial pattern in groundwater-exchange dynamics, with the
frequency and magnitude of groundwater inflow events (as opposed to outflow) increasing
down the cascade of tanks. The presence of tanks in the landscape dramatically alters the
catchment water balance, with catchment-scale runoff:rainfall ratios decreasing from 0.29
without tanks to 0.04 – 0.09 with tanks. Recharge:rainfall ratios increase in the presence of
tanks, from ~0.17 in catchments without tanks to ~ 0.26 in catchments with tanks. Finally, our
results demonstrate how more efficient management of sluice outflows can lead to the tanks
meeting a higher fraction of crop water requirements.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents Page No
Title Page i
Certificate ii
Acknowledgement iii
Abstract iv
List of Figures vi
List of Tables vii
Chapter 1 Introduction 7-8

1.1 General 7

1.2 Relevance 7

1.3 Objectives 8

Chapter 2 Literature Review 9-10

2.1 General 9
2.2 Review 10
Chapter 3 Concept/Theory 11-12

3.1 Rainwater Harvesting Techniques 11

3.2 Groundwater Recharge Technique 12

CHAPTER 4 RWH in Bangalore 15

CHAPTER 5 Role of institution 16-17

CHAPTER 6 Results 20-21

Chapter 7 Conclusion 22

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. No. Title of Figure Page No.

Fig.1. RWH models displayed at Theme Park, 11

Fig.2 Model of Ground water recharge pit, RWH 11

Theme Park

LIST OF TABLES
Table No. Title of table Page No.
1 Table 1 Rainwater potential in Bangalore (1990- 8
2020)
2 Table.2 Reason for installing RWH 18
3 Method of RWH adopted by different 18
households
4 Advantage of installing RWH 22

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 CHAPTER 1
Introduction

1.1 GENERAL

Urbanization and its consequences are challenging to manage as they increase the demands on
the infrastructure specifically for meeting the key services like water, sanitation, transportation
and housing. At the 2000 UN Millennium Summit, the experts came up with certain important
resolutions in order to hasten the development process which led to the formulation of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), of which, Goal 7 in particular is related to
environment and water; and its aim was to reduce the proportion of population having no
sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation to half, by 2015. In the context
of water, it means the provision of potable water for drinking and hygiene. Although the fact
that the water requirements for drinking and hygiene purposes, as compared to the other
sectors, are low rainwater could be a relatively good source for meeting such requirements. It
is considered useful to adopt technologies to suit the changing scenarios to help the society by
making it decentralized and economical (Konig and Uberlingen 2009).

1.2 RELEVANCE

Water harvesting can be advantageous in several respects given the crisis of water. Rain
water could be collected and used for drinking purpose, but adequate precautions must be
taken to avoid water pollution. Rain water harvesting (RWH) improves access and availability
of water. RWH also helps reduce floods in addition to increasing the availability and quality
of ground water. It reduces the dependency on regular water supply, prevents soil erosion and
improves its quality and rejuvenates defunct wells/bore wells through recharging of ground
water. Although thereare no disadvantages associated with RWH, it can be detrimental if not
installed as per the prescribed design. In such cases, the disadvantages could be in the form of
contamination of water quality if rooftops are not clean, water logging if ground water is not
recharged properly and flooding of roofs, if filters are not properly designed and cleaned
frequently. Rainwater stagnates on the surface of earth if ground water is not reused properly.
Further, improper care leads to the leakage of under drainage water, toilet pits nearby and
wastes discharged by industrial units lead to the pollution of ground water. RWH of varied
types has been popular and being practiced in several countries at levels and across users.
While some of them have adopted it in urban areas on a large scale, there are others where
there are individual initiatives taken up at buildings, airports, hotels etc

6
 The present paper is based on the study that focused on the emerging trends in respect of
RWH implementation and management in Bangalore based on field views in response to the
initiatives taken by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board in making RWH
installations compulsory for households. The study tries to explore issues and constraints
facing users with regard to RWH implementation and also looks into the institutional
initiatives taken and interventions made in respect of RWH. The findings are presented with
key messages and recommendations.
RWH in India

1.3 OBJECTIVE

The objectives are mainly to

(i) to understand the institutions involved and their role in RWH implementation.
(ii) to understand the actual implementation of RWH in Bangalore city.
(iii) to suggest strategies for improved RWH implementation and management.

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 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 GENERAL

Many researchers studied and investigated about this topic. Their research are as follows –

Agarwal A, Narain S (1997) Dying Wisdom: Rise, fall, and potential of India’s traditional

water harvesting systems centre for science and environment, New Delhi, India

BBMP, Brochure BDA Documents (2011) BDA’s initiative to conserve a great heritage DH

News Service, 4 October 2010

Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology: rain water harvesting (2005) http://

kscst.iisc.ernet.in/rwh_files/rwh_initiate.html. Accessed on 4 July 2011

Kumar AR (2005) Amruthavarshini—a guide for rainwater harvesting. Karnataka State

Council for Science and Technology

Model Rainwater Harvesting Projects of CSE (2013) http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/

Uraban/Mode-Projects.html Accessed on 15 July 2011 Popular Mechanics

Preservation of lake in Bangalore city rainwater harvesting KSCST (2011) http://

www.slideshare.net/mynk/rain-water-harvesting-kscst Accessed on 19 July 2011

https://sandrp.in/2016/07/04/groundwater-of-pune-an-over-exploited-and-ungoverned-
lifeline/

https://knoema.com/atlas/India/Pune/Ground-water-level

8
https://wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy/water/paper/drinkingwater/rainwater/calculation.html#:
~:text=For%20calculation%20we%20take%20the,x%200.9%20%3D%2048%20600%20litre
s.

Agarwal A, Narain S (1997) Dying Wisdom: Rise, fall, and potential of India’s traditional
water harvesting systems centre for science and environment, New Delhi, India
BBMP, Brochure BDA Documents (2011) BDA’s initiative to conserve a great heritage DH
News Service, 4 October 2010

9
 CHAPTER 3

CONCEPT/ THEORY

3.1 Rainwater Harvesting Techniques

Broadly, there are two main techniques of rain water harvesting

(1) Storage of rainwater on surface

(2) Ground water recharge

3.2Storage of Rainwater on Surface

The structures used include underground tanks, ponds, check dams, weirs etc., i.e., which
receives direct rainfall viz. footpaths, roads and rooftops. However, ideal among them for
catchment is rooftop as a large coefficient of runoff is generated from it and also contamination
of water is less as compared to the other two options

3.1.1Rooftop RWH
Rooftop RWH is suitable for either flat or inclined roofs for the collection of water. The roof
area determines the quantum of water that could be collected. Down water pipes made out of
PVC, HDPE, cement pipes or half cut horizontal plastic pipes (for inclined roofs) are fixed to
the rooftop and connected to a storage sump or syntax tank with specially designed filter, mesh
etc. The stored water can be used for secondary purposes and, if treated through boiling, aqua
guard and other purification methods, it could be used for drinking. To avoid contamination,
precaution should be taken to protect stored water by covering it properly and ensure that
either sunlight or dust does not enter the sump/tank. It is also important to manually maintain
the storing system like cleaning of filters, removing of leaves and twigs and other wastes from
the mesh etc., for obtaining good results Plate 1.

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 Fig.1 RWH models displayed at Theme Park,

3.2Groundwater Recharge Technique

The percolation of excess rain water through an infiltration system to the subsurface is called
‘Artificial Ground water Recharge’. In the floor area, water recharge would be about 1 L/m2,
where as in the pavement area i.e., through pavers with gaps, it would be about 10 L/m2.
Another estimate indicates that when

Fig.2 Model of Ground water recharge pit, RWH Theme Park

the breadth of a footpath is 3 m, 3,00,000 L of rainwater flows for 1 mile, more will be the flow
of rainwater if more is the breadth of the footpath

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 CHAPTER 4

4 RWH in Bangalore

Bangalore’s urbanization process has been alarmingly unprecedented making it a challenge for
the State government to provide the much needed infrastructure facilities. Bangalore, the
capital city of Karnataka, is India’s sixth most populous city and fifth most populous urban
agglomeration. Bangalore, with its strategic location as well as congenial climate, and the
establishment of the IT industry attracts people from all over the country. Of the many
challenges that urban Bangalore faces, water scarcity remains one of the critical issues.
Availability, Accessibility, Equity and Quality have been the serious challenges, while
environmental concerns are on the increase in view of ground water depletion and
contamination. Bangalore has lost many of its water bodies making the ecosystem fragile with
the increasing need for space to meet the demands of housing and business establishments
Bangalore gets water from river Cauvery, about 100 km away and 500 m below Bangalore,
incurring huge financial costs. Water flows against gravitational force from Cauvery, and is
pumped at various stages before reaching Bangalore. Thus, Cauvery travels a distance of 100
km to a height of 500 m against gravity using 71 mw of electricity. A huge amount of Rs. 25
crore is being paid as power charges every month, but Bangalore still faces an acute shortage
of water supply against the total demand. Hence, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board
(BWSSB) has taken the initiative to drill bore wells for supplying water; besides the citizens
also drill private bore wells in order to overcome the water shortage problem. This has resulted
not only in the rapid increase of bore wells throughout Bangalore, but also overexploitation of
ground water. It is estimated that the number of bore wells total around 2 lakhs. The ground
water level has declined by about 10 m in between 1978 and 2003 (Kumar 2005). Many defunct
wells and failed (dry) bore wells are also seen throughout Bangalore. Another relevant issue
that adds to groundwater depletion is the closure of tanks. Bangalore has an advantage of
having nearly 70 rainy days spread over the year. However, Bangalore drainage system can
handle only 30 mm of rainfall in one hour. So whenever there is a heavy down pour, the city
faces problems. There were about 370 tanks in Bangalore, but have declined over time due to
improper management giving way to construction of the Stadiums, Parks, Bus stops and
Buildings. Major lakes in the city have been occupied by buildings, parks, bus stands, Stadiums
etc., and tar/cement roads have been increased leaving no place for rain water run offs to reach
underground.
In this backdrop, RWH has been made mandatory for households in Bangalore city with a
site dimension of 40/60 and above from 2009. Post BWSSB amendment act, there has been a
gradual increase in the number of RWH installations. Currently, there are more than 25,000
households with RWH installations (see Annex 1). Several scientists and architects have
worked on the methods to be adopted in respect of RWH. Theme park, the first information

12
and research centre in respect of RWH established in co-ordination with BWSSB and KSCST
at 5th block, Jayanagar, is a well established awareness creation centre.

Months Rainfall in mm Rainy

days
January 2.3 0.2
February 6.4 0.3
March 16.0 1.0
April 44.5 2.8
May 96.0 5.5
June 85.7 5.0
July 100.3 6.9
August 117.8 8.9
September 194.6 9.3
October 154.5 8.5
November 43.9 3.3
December 15.8 1.4
Total 877.8 53.2

Table 1 Rainwater potential in Bangalore (1990-2020)

13
 Currently, per capita water demand in Bangalore works out to about 150–200 L per day,
while the actual supply comes to about 100–125 L per day, amounting to about 40 % of water
shortage Table 1

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 CHAPTER 5

Methodology.

We have used both primary and secondary data for the study: primary data from the households,
and the secondary data from institutions—BWSSB, BCC, BDA and the KSCST. The study
was conducted in Bangalore from April 2011 to July 2011. Based on discussions with the
officials of the BWSSB, the area for the survey was identified. RWH adopted across Bangalore
has been divided into Central, North, South, East, West and South East zones. There was no
data available on the number of households that had adopted RWH across areas within these
zones. Hence, among the zones, we identified the South Zone and two areas within the zone
(Girinagar and Katriguppe) where majority of the households have adopted RWH. A
questionnaire covering various aspects on perceptions, usage, problems, cost incurred on
installing RWH was designed. Although the study could not cover all zones in Bangalore, the
field situation largely reflects the situation in other areas as well.

Incentives by the Government

• There is a proposal to introduce 2 % property tax rebate for 5 years for households with the
installation of RWH.
• BWSSB has coordinated with Banks to provide loans to install RWH. The loan amount
provided will be 75 % of the estimated cost and with a provision of repayment in 60
installments.

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 CHAPTER 6

Role of Institutions

The role of institutions has been admirable in promoting RWH.As major institution played
very important role in promoting the RWH in Bangalore city.

5.1 BWSSB

The most important initiative taken by the BWSSB has been developing the RWH Regulations
in 2009 specific to Bangalore. ‘Rainwater Harvesting Regulations, 2009’ for Bangalore, every
owner or occupier in the building in the site area 2,400 sq ft and above and who construct the
building in the site area 1,200 sq ft and above have to install RWH structures. Besides this,
any new building construction plan is approved only with a RWH system in place.
BWSSB is engaged in various activities in promoting RWH viz., publishing materials
pertaining to RWH, conducting the training programmes for the plumbers and organizing
awareness programmes for the public besides implementing RWH in their own offices.
BWSSB has also taken up installation of RWH in 40 of its buildings throughout Bangalore.
BWSSB is also responsible to monitor the proper installation of RWH structures and BWSSB
officials regularly check the water meter along with RWH storage tanks.
BWSSB in collaboration with the KSCST has built a Theme park in Jayanagar, a resource
centre to disseminate information about RWH and is India’s First Rain Water Information
Centre. The Theme Park visually displays 27 models of RWH in the theme park making it
convenient for visitors to choose in terms of design and costs

5.2 Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology

KSCST has directly been involved in RWH promotion and besides practically displaying its
promotion through implementation. RWH in twenty landmark buildings and four exhibition
plots for demonstration of cost and groundwater recharge technologies are displayed at
Bangalore and Tumkur. KSCST is also involved in conducting various training programmes
for Engineers, Architects, Planners, Contractors, Plumbers, Masons etc

5.3 Incentives by the Government

• There is a proposal to introduce 2 % property tax rebate for 5 years for households with the
installation of RWH.
• BWSSB has coordinated with Banks to provide loans to install RWH. The loan amount
provided will be 75 % of the estimated cost and with a provision of
• repayment in 60 installments.

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 CHAPTER 7

Results

Two sets of questionnaire were prepared specifically for the survey, for collecting information
from (1) households with RWH structures and (2) households without RWH structures

6.1 Households with Rain Water Harvesting Structures

One hundred and twenty households with RWH structures have been surveyed. The site
dimension of these households works out to 40 9 60 and above. The built area varied from
1,0000–35,000 sq ft.
Nearly 99 % of households surveyed have BWSSB connection with more than 93 % of the
families using it for all purposes. Only 7 % of the households owning bore wells use bore well
water also. Residents of this area do not experience water shortage even though such situations
do occur rarely, mostly during the summer, forcing people to postpone some of the household
chores for a day or two. Dependency on Tankers is found insignificant; only two families have
informed that they get water from a tanker during such emergencies.
Respondents who have installed RWH structures (79 %) have done so mainly because of
the force exerted by the BWSSB (Table 2) rather than on their own interest. As opined by the
respondents, they were issued notices and were compelled to do so by the BWSSB officials;
in fact, they felt helpless that water connection would be suspended if they did not oblige. This
has resulted in the installation of RWH structures, just to avoid water supply suspension. They
feel that the RWH, if made mandatory during the time of construction and would be less
cumbersome and not at a later stage. Maximum numbers of people have adopted underground
recharge method. Moreover, water scarcity was not an issue in this area and only 5 % of the
households encountered scarcity during summer occasionally.

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 Reasons Number Percent

Compulsion from Govt/BWSSB 95 79.2

Self interest 25 20.8

Total 120 100.0

Table.2 Reason for installing RWH

Type of RWH Installed Number Percent

Roof top 23 19.16
Underground recharge 104 86.6
Directly to bore well 4 4.2
Directly to open well 20 17.5

Table.3 Method of RWH adopted by different households

6.1.1 Usage of Harvested Rainwater

Among the families who have adopted roof top rain water harvesting, two families were found
using water for cooking and drinking. They direct rooftop water directly to their overhead tanks
and use that water for all purposes. However, they have installed Aquaguard’s in their kitchens
for filtering water. They were convinced of using harvested rainwater as they are skeptical
about using BWSSB water which could also be contaminated because of sewage leakages. The
remaining households use water for cleaning toilets, gardening and bathing (Table 4). It is
interesting here to note that only 9 families opine that the quality of harvested rainwater is
good. The rest of the respondents are not sure about the quality of harvested rain water because
it gets mixed with water received from BWSSB or their own bore well water

Purpose No Percent
Only for ground water 52 43.3
recharge
Only for cleaning 22 18.3
Only for gardening 18 15
Only for bathing 5 4.2
For cooking and drinking 2 1.6
All purposes 6 5
No response 15 12.5
Total 120 100

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6.1.2Advantages of RWH

A majority of people (84 %) opine that RWH increases ground water level and thus helps
overcome water scarcity. Only 13 % of them say it is eco-friendly, 5 % feel it helps in reducing
water bills, 4 % reduction in electricity bills, while nearly 3 % feel it checks soil erosion and
3 % express that water will be stored for future use. All this indicates that people are by and
large aware of the advantages associated with rainwater harvesting and also that they are
positive about RWH, as a technique. A majority of the respondents (94 %) report that they
would recommend RWH to others, an encouraging sign of RWH awareness and its popularity.

Advantages of RWH No Percent

Increase in ground water level 101 84.2
No water scarcity 42 35.0
Reduction in water bills 6 5.0
Reduction in electricity bills 5 4.2
Eco-friendly 16 13.3
Checks soil erosion 3 2.5
Stored water for future use 4 3.3
Table .5 Advantage of installing RWH

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 CHAPTER 8

Conclusions

RWH is an essential and welcome initiative taken up by the BWSSB in particular besides the
various institutions involved in RWH. General awareness about RWH is good. However, it is
important that the process of implementation of RWH is strengthened at all levels. It is also
important that the initiatives taken in respect of RWH across various institutions are
coordinated to ensure expected results.
However, among the households that have not installed RWH, it is important to understand
the problems and work towards addressing them.
Integration of Institutional Initiatives
As discussed earlier, there are several organizations (BWSSB, BBMP, BDA, KFD, LDA)
that take up varied initiatives with respect to rain water harvesting. The overall goal is the
same though the focus areas differ. It is important that these institutions are integrated for
having a common vision towards obtaining effective results.
Promoting RWH in Water Scarce Areas—RWH should be popularized in water scarce areas
and later be promoted in relatively less scarce areas to make RWH implementation more
effective. Few experienced overflow of bore well water hence, recharging was inappropriate.
Aquifer mapping is another important requirement to assess the ground water status and
initiatives taken up accordingly. As can be seen in areas where water scarcity is not an issue,
the citizens considered RWH as a burden which is unnecessary.

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