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My office building has recently adopted water harvesting (which is an ancient practice in many parts of India). Mumbai receives a LOT of rain, and I’m glad tha

My office building has recently adopted water harvesting (which is an ancient practice in many parts of India). Mumbai receives a LOT of rain, and I’m glad that we’re able to divert some of it to the ground water table. Seeing this succeed, I’m pushing the same for my building too, I’m surprised to see a lot of my neighbours have problems with the same (cause of wastage of a common terrace), I should send them this article.

rusticpenn 7y ago
I heard things are critical in southern India, apparently restaurants are closed, our offshore guys are working from home, using starbucks for toilets etc... is this true?
- iKevinShah 7y ago
  Yes, if your offshore guys are from Chennai.
- oasisbob 7y ago
  I'm here in Chennai, and things are bad, but it's hard to tell how bad. So much of the water is trucked anyways - Chennai doesn't have a well developed unified water system. As a foreigner who has visited several times, here's what I've noticed: - lots more people on the street with those iconic plastic water containers. Lots more water trucks on the road. - water quality is BAD. Even in upper-class highrise condos, the water has much more odor and color. In this building, salinity is way up too. There's a reverse-osmosis plant here, but it's only on for several hours a day because RO systems waste so much water. - haven't seen many restaurant closures, but I'm sure they're happening. - a lot of hotels targeting westerners have advanced filtration and reverse-osmosis plants, seem to still be operating. Some pools are drained. - water pressure in some neighborhoods is so low that it's only a trickle at the tap. News says some people are using pumps to pull of the metro system, making things worse. Overall, it seems like bad expensive water is still out there if you can afford it and want to pay.
- r_singh 7y ago
  Must be true, but I would expect a bit of exaggeration there.
random42 7y ago
Just curious (and ignorant): How do you assess the success of water harvesting? Do you measure the water table levels periodically?
- r_singh 7y ago
  Not sure there's any easy way for a society (as in building society) to do that. There's a huge water tanker on our terrace with a big surface area to capture rain water, it goes through some filtration processes and is utilised by the building for all general purposes. When there is extra water in the tank, it's diverted to the ground water via something opposite of a boring connection. I know that we often have extra water in the tank (it is rainy even as I type this) and it is diverted underground, so in my book that's a success cause something is better than nothing.

rusticpenn 7y ago

I heard things are critical in southern India, apparently restaurants are closed, our offshore guys are working from home, using starbucks for toilets etc... is this true?

iKevinShah 7y ago
Yes, if your offshore guys are from Chennai.
oasisbob 7y ago
I'm here in Chennai, and things are bad, but it's hard to tell how bad. So much of the water is trucked anyways - Chennai doesn't have a well developed unified water system. As a foreigner who has visited several times, here's what I've noticed: - lots more people on the street with those iconic plastic water containers. Lots more water trucks on the road. - water quality is BAD. Even in upper-class highrise condos, the water has much more odor and color. In this building, salinity is way up too. There's a reverse-osmosis plant here, but it's only on for several hours a day because RO systems waste so much water. - haven't seen many restaurant closures, but I'm sure they're happening. - a lot of hotels targeting westerners have advanced filtration and reverse-osmosis plants, seem to still be operating. Some pools are drained. - water pressure in some neighborhoods is so low that it's only a trickle at the tap. News says some people are using pumps to pull of the metro system, making things worse. Overall, it seems like bad expensive water is still out there if you can afford it and want to pay.
r_singh 7y ago
Must be true, but I would expect a bit of exaggeration there.

random42 7y ago

Just curious (and ignorant): How do you assess the success of water harvesting? Do you measure the water table levels periodically?

r_singh 7y ago
Not sure there's any easy way for a society (as in building society) to do that. There's a huge water tanker on our terrace with a big surface area to capture rain water, it goes through some filtration processes and is utilised by the building for all general purposes. When there is extra water in the tank, it's diverted to the ground water via something opposite of a boring connection. I know that we often have extra water in the tank (it is rainy even as I type this) and it is diverted underground, so in my book that's a success cause something is better than nothing.