| Antoji, Chellanam, Kochi |
Which is the best place to store rain water? For Antoji of Chellanam, Kochi there is no doubt at all that it has to be stored in the earth itself. With this premise, he has evolved a system called ‘water syringe’.
Instead of storing the water falling on the roofs of building in ground level storage structures, his system leads it to the ground in a controlled manner using PVC pipes. First the roof water is led to a 1000 litre tank. This buffer acts as a pressurizing device to push the water down. From this tank, water is taken into the bowels of the earth by means of PVC pipes of diameter 6 to 8 inches.
In Kochi such pipes are taken to a depth of 25 to 300 feet. When there is rain, the rainwater is collected in the underground storage pipe in this manner. During times of need, the same water is taken out from the same pipe by means of a pump, which is already placed inside the pipe.
Even if the water table is quite close to the ground and the underground water is saline, this system works, says Antoji who has implemented about 300 such units in and around Kochi. This is because rain water under pressure pushes out the saline water.
He first tried his idea at Chellanam 15 years ago. In the initial stage, he had tried to remove the soil and replace it with sand at the top. However, as the sand was a hindrance to the flow of water downwards, he had changed the design. Lack of space in the city was another factor that contributed to change in design.
Courtesy:V.P.Sreelan (text), Mathrubhumi, May 23, 2013
