Apartment in Alwarpet turns to recharge wells to get rainwater-rich

As apartments go, Aashiana Apartment at Venus Colony is a Baby Boomer. Carved out of a space that we

As apartments go, Aashiana Apartment at Venus Colony is a Baby Boomer. Carved out of a space that went by the name ‘Venus Studios’ many summers ago, the community has a sizeable population of seniors, a fact that came into wider light in the early part of the pandemic when apartment-based residents’ associations were scrambling around to have vaccination camps organised for their elderly, at their own turf. For a community that has a few decades on it now, this one is impressively sprightly, staying in step with present trends.

A glowing example is how it has chosen to manage the rainwater that splashes on it.

“When the colony was built, rainwater accumulation structures had been created. Besides, constructing new recharge wells, we converted a few existing recharge structures — actually, recharge bores — into recharge wells,” says Bhuvana Panchanath, secretary of Aashiana Flat Owners Association (AFOA).

Bhuvana notes that the project on recharge wells ran through 2020-21, and was helmed by Anita Hegde (vice-president, AFOA, 2020-21) and Mano Vijaykumar (Jt. Secretary, AFOA, 2020-21).

For the sake of knowledge transfer, the community Report on Work on Aashiana ‘s Rain Water Harvesting System – 2021

The report prepared by Anita and Mano notes that it all began in October 2020, when the Association approached Sekhar Raghavan of Akash Ganga Trust – Rain Centre, Chennai, seeking that he inspect the old RWH system and weigh in with his views about its future.

Raghavan had reportedly asked them to keep an eye on the RWH structures when the skies open up, and see if it any of them was doing the opposite of what it was intended to do: that is, “throwing up rainwater instead of collecting and absorbing it”.