Extensive Rainwater Harvesting Can Solve Gurgaon’s Water Problems!

Gurgaon:

The millennium city Gurgaon, sporting some of the biggest skyscrapers—both modern and luxurious—housing offices and residential apartment blocks, frequently battles with the issue of water scarcity. This is something that the city has painfully learnt to live with as it survives on 8 to 16 hours of load shedding.

Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) declared Gurgaon a dark zone way back in 2000, predicting Gurgaon to be waterless dry rocks by 2017, if excessive extraction of groundwater was not stopped immediately.

Despite CGWA ban on ground water extraction in 2000, water level in Gurgaon has been going down by four feet every year. There is no way to rectify this situation unless the rainwater is harvested and effectively utilized. Anticipating severe consequences in future, Punjab and Haryana High Court banned commercial use of ground water, especially in construction, in Gurgaon in 2012.

The Indian arm of the world’s largest contact center firm Teleperformance, headquartered in the city too has silently been doing its bit in this direction.

As part of Telepermance India’s ‘Citizens Of The Planet’ initiative it encourages its employees to reduce environmental impact by propagating sustainable practices, as well as disemminating environmental information in order to preserve for the coming generations a better future.

Sanjay Mehta, Managing Director of India arm of the world’s largest contact center Teleperformance says, “If 2,000 companies take to harvesting rainwater before the next monsoon arrives, the water issues in Gurgaon will be looked after for a year. That way we could plough back in the mother earth over 24,000 million liters of water annually which equals a year’s water consumption in the city. This is indeed a cause worthy of emulating for protecting the future for the millennium city.”

Team Teleperformance set up a rainwater harvesting unit back in 2001, by constructing two wells in its compound. These reserviors collect over 1.4 million liters of water annually. This small initiative, if replicated by every other corporate office in Gurgaon, will have a force multiplier effect to the extent that not only will the water scarcity problem of Gurgaon and neighbouring areas be addressed, but the issue of water logging will also be taken care of.

Interestingly, there’s a minimal investment for putting up a rainwater harvesting unit.  Two wells built within the office premise - one in front and one in rear cost Teleperformance Indian nearly Rs5,00,000 in 2001 and requires almost no maintenance. It is really that simple!

Sensing the criticality of the situation, many companies located in Gurgaon have taken upon themselves to sensitize their employees to conserve water use in offices, go in for rainwater harvesting to restore water levels. Several malls and office complexes have started using water less urinals