2020-2021
Lake Rejuvenation and Management course
Bangalore University’s Water Institute, in collaboration with Biome, ATREE and Friends of Lakes, offered a 20 hour course in Lake Rejuvenation and Management that was open to anyone interested in the subject. This course ran from March 13 to April 10, 2021 for four hours every Saturday. Biome was faculty and partner for the course.
IIT Gandhinagar Sustainability fair
Biome set up a virtual stall at the online Sustainability fair organised by IIT Gandhinagar on March 26, 2021.
ITC multistakeholder meeting
Biome, Myrada and MSSS participated in a multistakeholder meeting ‘Urban water management in Bangalore North – Issues, challenges and opportunities’ organised by ITC and Biome on March 24, 2021.
BWSSB panel discussion
Vishwanath Srikantaiah participated in a panel discussion organised by the BWSSB where he spoke on the history of water management in Bengaluru and the role of the BWSSB on March 23, 2021.
Talks on World Water Day 2021
Shubha Ramachandran gave three talks on World Water Day, March 22, 2021 – to Christ College, Kengeri students, at the Plumb Skills Expo 2021 by the Indian Plumbing Skills Council, and to Kristu Jayanti College BBA students.
Vishwanath Srikantaiah participated in the Chat4Change webinar one organised by WRI-AACO on ‘Advocating for citywide inclusive and resilient access to safe and affordable water’, on World Water Day, March 22, 2021.
Poster for World Water Day 2021
In collaboration with Rainmatter, Biome created a poster for World Water Day 2021 on the theme ‘Take the Pledge #NoMoreBottledWater’ with information on how deleterious bottled water is for the environment.
Training for masons / electricians for JJM
Biome conducted a training workshop for masons and electricians at the Yelahanka Taluk Office facilitated by MSSS for the Jal Jeevan Mission as part of the ITC project on March 20, 2021.
RWH awareness for Govt schools
Biome conducted workshops on rainwater harvesting awareness for Bettahalasuru and Channahalli govt schools on March 17, 2021 as part of the ITC project.
Well rejuvenation in Lalbagh
SayTrees funded the rejuvenation of an old well in Lalbagh that had been filled with trash. The well is 10 feet in diameter and 29 feet deep with water at 25 feet. It was cleaned up and double mesh covers were installed. This work was taken up in Feb – Mar 2021.
UNESCO World Heritage Cities Programme
The ‘Million Wells for Bengaluru’ campaign was featured in UNESCO World Heritage Cities Programme’s Urban Notebooks newsletter of February 2021 as well as on their Canopy online platform.
Training for PDOs for JJM
Biome conducted a training workshop for Panchayat Development Officers at the Yelahanka Taluk Office facilitated by MSSS and Myrada for the Jal Jeevan Mission as part of the ITC project on February 5, 2021.
Training for plumbers / electricians for JJM
Biome conducted a training workshop for plumbers and electricians at the Yelahanka Taluk Office facilitated by MSSS for the Jal Jeevan Mission as part of the ITC project on January 30, 2021.
Plumber training workshop
A plumber training workshop was conducted by Biome and Myrada at the Myrada office with support from ITC on January 24, 2021 on rainwater harvesting techniques.
Well documentation
Biome Environmental Trust received a no-strings-attached grant of Rs 50,000 from Rainmatter Foundation in January 2021. Biome used part of the grant to rejuvenate our well mapping exercise and also document some well stories.
INTERVIEW ON MBTV
Vishwanath Srikantaiah was interviewed by Magicbricks for its MBTV YouTube channel on ‘Will Bengaluru run out of water in the next 10 years?’ on January 7, 2021
Awareness program for Sobha Canvas
Biome conducted an online awareness program on sustainable water management for Sobha Canvas layout on January 3, 2021 as part of the ITC project
Plumber training workshop
A plumber training workshop was conducted by Biome and Myrada at GGHS Vijayapura with support from ITC on December 2, 2020 on rainwater harvesting techniques.
Awareness program for Jade Garden
Biome conducted an online awareness program on sustainable water management for Jade Garden layout on November 18, 2020 as part of the ITC project.
Kannamangala Lake rejuvenation
Biome was a knowledge partner in the multistakeholder rejuvenation project of Kannamangala Lake in Whitefield.
TEDx Biome Environmental Trust
Biome Environmental Trust participated in the TED Global Countdown and organised TEDxBiomeEnvironmentalTrust on Oct 17, 2020. The event had several speakers from Samaaj (citizens, RWAs, NGOs), Sarkaar (experts, policy makers) and Bazaar (entrepreneurs, service providers) telling the water story of Bengaluru in a virtual event that was attended by around 270 people.
Rainwater harvesting at Vijayapura Govt Girls High School
India Cares raised funding from Ernst and Young to install rooftop RWH systems in four govt schools, one of which was taken up by Biome. A rooftop RWH system was installed in the school, including a new sump of 8000 litres. This was done in the second half of 2020. The school has been used as a model for plumber training workshops.
BIOME at INHAFs Rethinking Cities Webinar on 16th October 2020
Cities of Tomorrow
Worldview Global reached out to Biome to create modules on different topics in water for their Cities of Tomorrow programme, a platform for accelerated learning to engage students in an immersive experience. This project ran in Sept-Oct 2020.
Practical Cities Masterclass
Vishwanath Srikantaiah conducted an online masterclass on Integrated Urban Water Management on September 25, 2020, organised by Practical Cities
Poche Conversations
Vishwanath Srikantaiah gave an online talk on ‘Water and Settlement’ as part of the Poche Conversations by the Alter Ego Studio on August 25, 2020
UNESCO / NIUA webinar
Vishwanath Srikantaiah was the keynote speaker at the webinar ‘Water Future for Cities: Making Water Everybody’s Business’ organised by UNESCO New Delhi and National Institute of Urban Affairs on July 29, 2020
ITC workshop for Myrada
Biome conducted a series of four online workshops for the staff of Myrada on urban water management on May 20, May 27, June 3, and June 10, 2020, as part of the ITC project.
Earthian water booklet and training
Wipro had commissioned Biome to create a booklet on water for high school students around ten years ago. They reached out to Biome to rewrite the booklet, as it was due for revision. This project was carried out during March – June 2020. The revision of the booklet was followed by a training session for teachers on the booklet content.
Participatory Groundwater Management - Devanahalli cont’d
Participatory Groundwater Management-Devanahalli (PGWM-D) was initiated in 2018 with the objective of developing and catalysing groundwater monitoring protocols for the different stakeholders in the project area. A few of the lakes within/in the vicinity of the project area started receiving treated wastewater as part of the HN Valley project of the Government of Karnataka. In this context, visits were made to Bagalur Lake which is one of the first lakes to receive treated wastewater. A Kere Habba was organised to celebrate the filling and overflow of the lake into downstream lakes. Biome participated in this Kere Habba. Monitoring of the water quality is very critical in such a scenario hence conversations with Bagalur Panchayat were initiated. Schools could become centres for water quality testing locally and students and teachers could actively participate in the testing activities. Conversations with Navodaya School and the Block Education Officer (BEO) of Devanahalli were initiated in this context.
A key outcome during this project has been cleaning of an open well near Sihineeru Kere near Devanahalli. Biome Trust with support from Devanahalli TMC got the well cleaned and desilted. Once Sihineeru Kere started receiving treated wastewater, the open well that had been dry for many years, started filling up and the water level has been gradually increasing. The conversations with the TMC are underway to integrate this open well water into TMC’s regular drinking water supply so that this would serve as a model for other towns/villages which are due to receive treated wastewater in their lakes / tanks.
ITC’s Sunehra Kal
As part of their Sunehra Kal program, the ITC B2 project was started in 2020. The objective of this project is to be able to contribute to urban water management focused on the area around ITC’s manufacturing facilities at Chikkajala.
As part of the project in 2020-21, the following activities were undertaken:
1. Development and distribution of RWH IEC Handouts for individual houses, apartments and layouts
2. Training of plumbers, masons, electricians and Panchayat PDOs on rainwater harvesting in collaboration with the NGOs Myrada and Mythri Sarva Seva Samiti as well as the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme
3. Lake group meetings with the tank user group of Tarabanahalli lake along with the surrounding layouts and with the Doddajala tank user groups
4. Discussion and rainwater harvesting awareness sessions with layouts like Jade Garden and Sobha Canvas to implement rainwater harvesting in their layouts
5. Rainwater harvesting awareness sessions were conducted for school children of Bettahalasur and Channahalli govt schools
6. A multistakeholder meeting was conducted on March 24, 2021 with around 50 stakeholders attending the event, organised by Biome and Myrada with the support of ITC. After this event Biome has received invitations to collaborate with many communities like the School of Ancient Wisdom through Rotary Club, Mythri Sarva Seva Samiti, Utopia Layout for Tarabanahalli lake development, Navodaya School, Bagalur Gram Panchayat, Devanahalli TMC etc.
Understanding wastewater reuse as a climate change mitigation strategy - Bengaluru and its hinterland
The Government of Karnataka proposes to pump 770 MLD of treated wastewater from Bengaluru City to the neighbouring drought-prone districts of Kolar, Chikkaballapur and Bengaluru Rural. The treated wastewater will fill up 134 tanks in these districts and will benefit the farmers by increasing the groundwater table through recharge from the tanks. This is part of the KC valley pumping scheme. As part of this project, farmer interviews were conducted around lakes yet to receive treated wastewater (Holali, Markalaghatta), lakes rejuvenated through World Bank JSYS project (Pichguntlahalli, Hosakere) and a lake which has received treated wastewater (Lakshmisagara). A total of 10-15 farmers were interviewed near each lake. Secondary data on drought, climate change, wastewater reuse was also collected from KSNDMC and other available case studies. An Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) was also conducted in 4 lakes to document and understand the link between the lake, water, vegetation and the treated wastewater. The key findings of the project are being documented currently.
Citizen Science
- Created content for audio tours for Jakkur Lake, Kaikondrahalli Lake and Kasavanahalli Lake.
- A presentation that guides one through the process of creating a holistic and inclusive ‘Lake Vision Document’. It discusses the potential Stakeholders, Functions, Physical Elements, and Rules that could comprise the ‘Lake Vision Document’ created. The presentation also includes a methodology that provides guidance on how to prepare for, conduct, and arrive at a vision for the future.
- Evidence Based Solutions for Lakes – a list of solutions that have been tried in Bengaluru has been compiled. Also, guidelines for documenting Evidence Based Solutions have been developed.
- Blogs have been written on
2020 - 2021
Lake Rejuvenation and Management course
Bangalore University’s Water Institute, in collaboration with Biome, ATREE and Friends of Lakes, offered a 20 hour course in Lake Rejuvenation and Management that was open to anyone interested in the subject. This course ran from March 13 to April 10, 2021 for four hours every Saturday. Biome was faculty and partner for the course.
IIT Gandhinagar Sustainability fair
Biome set up a virtual stall at the online Sustainability fair organised by IIT Gandhinagar on March 26, 2021.
ITC multistakeholder meeting
Biome, Myrada and MSSS participated in a multistakeholder meeting ‘Urban water management in Bangalore North – Issues, challenges and opportunities’ organised by ITC and Biome on March 24, 2021.
BWSSB panel discussion
Vishwanath Srikantaiah participated in a panel discussion organised by the BWSSB where he spoke on the history of water management in Bengaluru and the role of the BWSSB on March 23, 2021.
Talks on World Water Day 2021
Shubha Ramachandran gave three talks on World Water Day, March 22, 2021 – to Christ College, Kengeri students, at the Plumb Skills Expo 2021 by the Indian Plumbing Skills Council, and to Kristu Jayanti College BBA students.
Vishwanath Srikantaiah participated in the Chat4Change webinar one organised by WRI-AACO on ‘Advocating for citywide inclusive and resilient access to safe and affordable water’, on World Water Day, March 22, 2021.
Poster for World Water Day 2021
In collaboration with Rainmatter, Biome created a poster for World Water Day 2021 on the theme ‘Take the Pledge #NoMoreBottledWater’ with information on how deleterious bottled water is for the environment.
Training for masons / electricians for JJM
Biome conducted a training workshop for masons and electricians at the Yelahanka Taluk Office facilitated by MSSS for the Jal Jeevan Mission as part of the ITC project on March 20, 2021.
RWH awareness for Govt schools
Biome conducted workshops on rainwater harvesting awareness for Bettahalasuru and Channahalli govt schools on March 17, 2021 as part of the ITC project.
Well rejuvenation in Lalbagh
SayTrees funded the rejuvenation of an old well in Lalbagh that had been filled with trash. The well is 10 feet in diameter and 29 feet deep with water at 25 feet. It was cleaned up and double mesh covers were installed. This work was taken up in Feb – Mar 2021.
UNESCO World Heritage Cities Programme
The ‘Million Wells for Bengaluru’ campaign was featured in UNESCO World Heritage Cities Programme’s Urban Notebooks newsletter of February 2021 as well as on their Canopy online platform.
Training for PDOs for JJM
Biome conducted a training workshop for Panchayat Development Officers at the Yelahanka Taluk Office facilitated by MSSS and Myrada for the Jal Jeevan Mission as part of the ITC project on February 5, 2021.
Training for plumbers / electricians for JJM
Biome conducted a training workshop for plumbers and electricians at the Yelahanka Taluk Office facilitated by MSSS for the Jal Jeevan Mission as part of the ITC project on January 30, 2021.
Plumber training workshop
A plumber training workshop was conducted by Biome and Myrada at the Myrada office with support from ITC on January 24, 2021 on rainwater harvesting techniques.
INTERVIEW ON MBTV
Vishwanath Srikantaiah was interviewed by Magicbricks for its MBTV YouTube channel on ‘Will Bengaluru run out of water in the next 10 years?’ on January 7, 2021
Well documentation
Biome Environmental Trust received a no-strings-attached grant of Rs 50,000 from Rainmatter Foundation in January 2021. Biome used part of the grant to rejuvenate our well mapping exercise and also document some well stories.
Awareness program for Sobha Canvas
Biome conducted an online awareness program on sustainable water management for Sobha Canvas layout on January 3, 2021 as part of the ITC project
Plumber training workshop
A plumber training workshop was conducted by Biome and Myrada at GGHS Vijayapura with support from ITC on December 2, 2020 on rainwater harvesting techniques.
Awareness program for Jade Garden
Biome conducted an online awareness program on sustainable water management for Jade Garden layout on November 18, 2020 as part of the ITC project.
Kannamangala Lake rejuvenation
Biome was a knowledge partner in the multistakeholder rejuvenation project of Kannamangala Lake in Whitefield.
TEDx Biome Environmental Trust
Biome Environmental Trust participated in the TED Global Countdown and organised TEDxBiomeEnvironmentalTrust on Oct 17, 2020. The event had several speakers from Samaaj (citizens, RWAs, NGOs), Sarkaar (experts, policy makers) and Bazaar (entrepreneurs, service providers) telling the water story of Bengaluru in a virtual event that was attended by around 270 people.
Rainwater harvesting at Vijayapura Govt Girls High School
India Cares raised funding from Ernst and Young to install rooftop RWH systems in four govt schools, one of which was taken up by Biome. A rooftop RWH system was installed in the school, including a new sump of 8000 litres. This was done in the second half of 2020. The school has been used as a model for plumber training workshops.
BIOME AT INHAFS RETHINKING CITIES WEBINAR ON 16TH OCTOBER 2020
Cities of Tomorrow
Worldview Global reached out to Biome to create modules on different topics in water for their Cities of Tomorrow programme, a platform for accelerated learning to engage students in an immersive experience. This project ran in Sept-Oct 2020.
Practical Cities Masterclass
Vishwanath Srikantaiah conducted an online masterclass on Integrated Urban Water Management on September 25, 2020, organised by Practical Cities
Poche Conversations
Vishwanath Srikantaiah gave an online talk on ‘Water and Settlement’ as part of the Poche Conversations by the Alter Ego Studio on August 25, 2020
UNESCO / NIUA webinar
Vishwanath Srikantaiah was the keynote speaker at the webinar ‘Water Future for Cities: Making Water Everybody’s Business’ organised by UNESCO New Delhi and National Institute of Urban Affairs on July 29, 2020
ITC workshop for Myrada
Biome conducted a series of four online workshops for the staff of Myrada on urban water management on May 20, May 27, June 3, and June 10, 2020, as part of the ITC project.
Earthian water booklet and training
Wipro had commissioned Biome to create a booklet on water for high school students around ten years ago. They reached out to Biome to rewrite the booklet, as it was due for revision. This project was carried out during March – June 2020. The revision of the booklet was followed by a training session for teachers on the booklet content.
Participatory Groundwater Management - Devanahalli cont’d
Participatory Groundwater Management-Devanahalli (PGWM-D) was initiated in 2018 with the objective of developing and catalysing groundwater monitoring protocols for the different stakeholders in the project area. A few of the lakes within/in the vicinity of the project area started receiving treated wastewater as part of the HN Valley project of the Government of Karnataka. In this context, visits were made to Bagalur Lake which is one of the first lakes to receive treated wastewater. A Kere Habba was organised to celebrate the filling and overflow of the lake into downstream lakes. Biome participated in this Kere Habba. Monitoring of the water quality is very critical in such a scenario hence conversations with Bagalur Panchayat were initiated. Schools could become centres for water quality testing locally and students and teachers could actively participate in the testing activities. Conversations with Navodaya School and the Block Education Officer (BEO) of Devanahalli were initiated in this context.
A key outcome during this project has been cleaning of an open well near Sihineeru Kere near Devanahalli. Biome Trust with support from Devanahalli TMC got the well cleaned and desilted. Once Sihineeru Kere started receiving treated wastewater, the open well that had been dry for many years, started filling up and the water level has been gradually increasing. The conversations with the TMC are underway to integrate this open well water into TMC’s regular drinking water supply so that this would serve as a model for other towns/villages which are due to receive treated wastewater in their lakes / tanks.
ITC’s Sunehra Kal
As part of their Sunehra Kal program, the ITC B2 project was started in 2020. The objective of this project is to be able to contribute to urban water management focused on the area around ITC’s manufacturing facilities at Chikkajala.
As part of the project in 2020-21, the following activities were undertaken:
1. Development and distribution of RWH IEC Handouts for individual houses, apartments and layouts
2. Training of plumbers, masons, electricians and Panchayat PDOs on rainwater harvesting in collaboration with the NGOs Myrada and Mythri Sarva Seva Samiti as well as the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme
3. Lake group meetings with the tank user group of Tarabanahalli lake along with the surrounding layouts and with the Doddajala tank user groups
4. Discussion and rainwater harvesting awareness sessions with layouts like Jade Garden and Sobha Canvas to implement rainwater harvesting in their layouts
5. Rainwater harvesting awareness sessions were conducted for school children of Bettahalasur and Channahalli govt schools
6. A multistakeholder meeting was conducted on March 24, 2021 with around 50 stakeholders attending the event, organised by Biome and Myrada with the support of ITC. After this event Biome has received invitations to collaborate with many communities like the School of Ancient Wisdom through Rotary Club, Mythri Sarva Seva Samiti, Utopia Layout for Tarabanahalli lake development, Navodaya School, Bagalur Gram Panchayat, Devanahalli TMC etc.
Understanding wastewater reuse as a climate change mitigation strategy - Bengaluru and its hinterland
The Government of Karnataka proposes to pump 770 MLD of treated wastewater from Bengaluru City to the neighbouring drought-prone districts of Kolar, Chikkaballapur and Bengaluru Rural. The treated wastewater will fill up 134 tanks in these districts and will benefit the farmers by increasing the groundwater table through recharge from the tanks. This is part of the KC valley pumping scheme.
As part of this project, farmer interviews were conducted around lakes yet to receive treated wastewater (Holali, Markalaghatta), lakes rejuvenated through World Bank JSYS project (Pichguntlahalli, Hosakere) and a lake which has received treated wastewater (Lakshmisagara). A total of 10-15 farmers were interviewed near each lake. Secondary data on drought, climate change, wastewater reuse was also collected from KSNDMC and other available case studies. An Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) was also conducted in 4 lakes to document and understand the link between the lake, water, vegetation and the treated wastewater.
The key findings of the project are being documented currently.
Citizen Science
- Created content for audio tours for Jakkur Lake, Kaikondrahalli Lake and Kasavanahalli Lake.
- A presentation that guides one through the process of creating a holistic and inclusive ‘Lake Vision Document’. It discusses the potential Stakeholders, Functions, Physical Elements, and Rules that could comprise the ‘Lake Vision Document’ created. The presentation also includes a methodology that provides guidance on how to prepare for, conduct, and arrive at a vision for the future.
- Evidence Based Solutions for Lakes – a list of solutions that have been tried in Bengaluru has been compiled. Also, guidelines for documenting Evidence Based Solutions have been developed.
- Blogs have been written on