While Chennai faces extreme water crisis, this man’s home has more than enough pure drinking water

The city of Chennai in India is facing one of the worst water crisis in history, with thousands suffering from the acute shortage of clean, drinking water as four main reservoirs in the area run dry. Meanwhile, V K Raviraja, a 48-year-old insurance consultant living in the city, and his family have more than enough water in their home – that too, water that is purer than your standard RO water! 

This is thanks to the four kinds of rainwater harvesting systems that Raviraja built in his home back in 2014-15.

“Our overhead tank is split into two chambers, with a total capacity of 7,500 liters. One chamber, with a capacity of 4500 liters, is dedicated to rainwater, while the other 3,000 liters is dedicated to bore-well or municipal water for common use. The rainwater catchment area on top of the over head tank is 72 square feet. I have created a slope such that when it rains, rainwater falls on the top and goes into the tank through a hole, which I created manually. This is simple gravity at work, using no mechanical devices. Water enters through the hole, passes through the pipe, and before it falls inside the tank, dust is filtered by a piece of white cloth folded twice or thrice. I change this cloth frequently because dust settles there,” Raviraja reveals.

As of June 2019, he has collected 1,500 liters of drinking water in his overhead tank. His family consumes around 8-10 liters of rainwater every day. Recently, when it rained for about 40 minutes, he collected more than 20 liters of water.

Besides building a robust rainwater harvesting system, he has also constructed two types of bio-gas plants. One treats kitchen waste, while the balloon bio-gas plant treats human waste. This provides the fuel needs for his household for two hours a day. After the gas is generated, the solid waste is composted while the liquid is used as fertilizer. He has also installed 2-kilowatt solar power panels that generate eight units of power every day.

Read more here: https://www.thebetterindia.com/187035/chennai-water-crisis-sustainable-home-rainwater-harvesting-india/