Forest Park Becomes The First Park In Bhubaneswar To Host A Rainwater Harvesting System

Forest Park Becomes The First Park In Bhubaneswar To Host A Rainwater Harvesting System

The world is being depleted of groundwater faster than ever before. Governments and organisations around the world are making people aware of conserving water and reducing its wastage as much as they can. The Cape Town water crisis of 2017-18 grabbed the headlines of every media outlet around the world and reminded us of the need to conserve water. Bhubaneswar is one of the top SMART cities in the country and it is continuously striving towards a more sustainable future for its citizens. 

On Tuesday, the Biju Patnaik Park, popularly known as Forest Park became the first park in the city to host a rainwater harvesting system. In order to save water and recharge groundwater, Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has constructed a rainwater harvesting system in the park. It is the first in the city and is expected to greatly reduce water-logging and flooding by making sure the rainwater goes into the ground quickly. This will also help recharge groundwater level.

The RWH structure is a land-based system and it has nine recharge pits at appropriate locations inside the 22-acre park. The recharge pits are 1.5m wide and 1.5m deep and will capture surface rainwater runoff. The water will be filtered before going into the recharge well. The water can be drawn during summer for irrigating the park. The cost of the system is Rs 11 lakh.

“The purpose of putting up rainwater harvesting structures in parks is to recharge groundwater. Usually, a huge quantity of rainwater goes into drains and gets wasted. With a little planning and expenditure, we can easily stop the waste of this precious resource and use it for recharging the groundwater on a massive scale,” said BDA’s Chief Engineer-cum-Engineer Member Rajendra Kumar Nayak. BDA is planning to construct RWH structures in around 32 parks across the city.

“If we undertake rainwater harvesting in every park, we can replenish groundwater on a massive scale. For each square metre of area, we can collect about 1,000 litres of water per year. A park of 200 square metres area can conserve 2 lakh litres of water every year,” Nayak said. Rainwater harvesting at parks will help educate children about the benefits of saving and capturing this useful resource. It will also prevent flash floods in urban areas by avoiding inundation.

A rainwater harvesting system consists of the following components a catchment from where water is captured and stored or recharged, a conveyance system that carries the water harvested from the catchment to the storage/recharge zone, first flush that is used to flush out the first spell of rain, a filter that is used to remove pollutants, storage tanks and/or various recharge structures/pits to store the harvested water for future use.