Rakshitha and Srivalli visited JR layout on 13th November. The details are captured below:
Introduction to the layout
JR Greenwich Layout is a residential layout located in Kodathi (12.89482, 77.70941) towards the South East of Bengaluru city. It was constructed in 2015. It has 180 plots out of which 102 are occupied. There are around 400 residents.
The layout is under Bengaluru urban district and yet to be part of BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike). It does not receive Cauvery water and majorly dependent in-house borewells. It requires 60 KLD (Kilo Litres a Day) at 150 litres per person a day. The Layout was under the management of the builder till the year 2018. The Residents Welfare Association (RWA) was formed in the year 2019.
The Residents Welfare Association
The members of the association were water enthusiasts and ran a successful campaign to create awareness about water conservation. During 2019, the water scarcity was worst hit and finding water tankers was a task. The association did not want to get into a similar crisis situation in the future and thus aspired to make the layout water sufficient. The association chose to harvest the rainwater in sump tanks and reuse it for domestic purposes. But the residents did not respond to this positively.
Recharge wells
The RWA got a chance to visit Rainbow Drive Layout on Sarjapur road and learnt from the implementation of best practices. The suggestions of well digger Krishna were also taken into consideration and RWA decided to dig recharge wells. With the help of residents’ cooperation , JR layout dug 29 recharge wells at individual villas and 8 recharge wells in common areas. The recharge wells have led to the increase in the yield of borewells and the dependency on water tankers dropped down to 50%.
Demand management
The RWA also managed the demand side of water management by installing aerators in every individual villa, metering the water consumption and sending online notices to the villas which consume more water. The layout also reduced the fresh water demand by using treated wastewater from the Sewage Treatment Plant for gardening.
