Rainwater Harvesting is an effective and eco friendly method to reduce the dependence on the water scarcity due to adverse weather conditions and inadequate supply from the National water board . It results in a wide range of benefits for the business by being more self reliant on water requirements.
The daily water requirements of the project is covered by Open dug wells, deep well, supply from the National water board and by an integrated system of rain water harvesting tanks connecting all green house roof gutters to a centralized tank.
The tapping of water from the open wells & deep well to part cover the daily requirements is fast becoming a challenging situation. The gradual reduction of the water beds in the region has made the daily tapping of water a bare minimum. No possible improvement in rise of the water beds in the short term has been confirmed by many technical reports in the media.
The supply of water from the National water board is now fast reduced, specially during the drought periods during which the board has to cater to the increased priority demands from village community. And with the population increase and the urbanization, we will not be able to receive the water requirements from the board. Due to depletion of forest cover in the local area and many development programmes, the priority given to the supply for human consumption compared to cultivation purposes.
Another important ecological benefit offered by the use of rainwater collection systems is the reduction in our need for tapping water from the ground water resource , meaning from the environment, a water resource that is used by the community for drinking, bathing and cooking. Hence the more rain water harvested & used by us will result in the community benefiting for its consumption.
In addition the rain water collected will help ease the stress on the national water board in its distribution needs for the local community. Rainwater harvesting systems are relatively easy to maintain because they are not used for drinking water and will not require the installation of any expensive purifying technology and monitoring. With the relatively clean green house roofs we already have a built in catchment area, which during a rain is capable of collecting a large volume of water.
Making the most of the water resources we can also make a big difference to our plans for a more sustainable future, both for company & community. No longer can the water supply and the resource available can be taken for granted, more thought should be given to how much we take from the environment and how we can be more economical.
Of course, one of the challenges in the dependability of a rain water system is the unpredictability of the rain fall pattern. The initial cost of the system and its installation means there may not be a return on investment for a number of years. Rainwater harvesting will never completely replace the total water requirements as clean drinking water will still be needed for the workforce needs for drinking, food preparation and personal washing .
How much the rainwater harvesting systems will save our costs in the long run will depend on a number of factors such as the rain fall patterns, our storage capacities and the initial costs of the system installed.
The rain water catchment area is approximately 23,000 sqm green house area, we now have a storage capacity that covers about 30% of the yearly total requirements. And once the rain water tank is filled up during the monsoonal rains in October – December period, coupled with the inter-monsoonal rains, a period of 7-8 months water requirements can be covered until the next rain season.
Our total water storage capacity = 7.4 million litres
Of this, the Rain water harvesting & storage capacity is 6.9 million litres
We have the countries largest capacity Rain water harvesting system.