Thane society combats water scarcity with sustainable solutions

As Mumbai faces a 10 per cent water cut and dwindling potable water in its reservoirs BMC has resorted to using reserve stocks Residents of the Saprem Cooperative Society in Thane are now creating sustainable solutions to combat water scarcity For more than two decades the residents of the 64flat society in Lokmanya Nagar have struggled with frequent water disruptions forcing them to rely on expensive water tankers costing up to R1 lakh per monthPreventing wastageldquoIn 2019 we dug a borewell Before passing the resolution the committee presented the calculation of how muchfiltered water was being wasted On average one person uses the washroom at least four times a day consuming 20 litres of water For a household of four this amounts to 80 litres For the entire society this means wasting 5000 litres of water Such wastage was unacceptable resulting in the passing of a resolution of digging a borewellrdquo said committee membersSaprem Cooperative Society in ThaneldquoWhen we drilled the borewell we found water at a depth of 340 feet This solved the water problem as water was available 24 hours However the longterm sustainability of the groundwater source remained uncertain Today in the concretised world there is hardly any scope for rainwater to seep into the ground Instead it is often seen getting flushed out in drains Determined to find a solution we implemented rainwater harvesting by constructing a shed on the buildings terracerdquo the committee members addedAvinash Shaligram secretary and BB Bhise chairman of Saprem Cooperative Society told midday We struggled a lot with water disruption But with the unique ideas and cooperation from the residents we came up with this rainwater harvesting plan which we have been implementing for the last three years Why waste this natural rainwater which can be diverted for a meaningful purpose said ShaligramShivani Gaikwad who has resided in the society for 20 years told midday If there is no water it becomes difficult for women to manage all household chores and frustration becomes evident As a working woman I went through that struggle We used to receive a message from the society committee that water would come only for 15 minutes But I can proudly say that our society is not facing a water problem as we have taken sustainable steps to reuse the waterThe society also initiated the reuse of condensate water from residents air conditioning units A dedicated pipeline collects and channels this condensate water which is then used for washing vehicles watering plants etc ldquoIn summer AC usage is high and the condensate water is being wasted We installed a common pipeline for ACs to collect this water At the bottom we placed a 5footlong 4inchwide pipe which serves a capacity of approximately 753 litres We also attached a tap allowing the collected AC water to be used for washing cars and watering plantsrdquo said a residentExperts speakNazibur Rahaman an AC engineer with BlueDart told midday ldquoAssuming each AC is run for an hour which is not the actual case as ACs are usually run for at least two to three hours each AC will be producing 1 litre of condensate water Taking into account 60 houses the ACs will produce 60 litres of water in an hour This means even if the ACs are used for 3 hours the amount of condensate water generated is 180 litresrdquoldquoEven if we use a 10litre bucket for washing one car which is more than adequate water 18 to 19 cars can be washed with the amount of condensate water collected by just 60 onetonne ACs running for three hoursrdquo said RahamanHe added ldquoI am not exactly sure about the number of cars or fourwheelers in Mumbai which are washed every day but let us consider this number to be one lakh Though the number will be much higher So on average Mumbai wastes approximately 10 lakh litres of water just for washing cars every day If we assume everyone uses a 10litre bucket for washing one car and the number of cars washed every day is one lakhInstead if this sort of repurposing of the AC condensate outlet water is being implemented in all societies we can at least make sure that 70 per cent of the 10 lakh litres of filtered municipal water wasted on washing cars is saved every day