With the Water Crisis looming over our heads, especially in Bengaluru, the need for a Water Conservation Workshop was imperative. Many Residents and Management Committees living in Apartment Complexes are facing this water issue, but are having trouble with installing the proper means because of the lack of resources.
To fight this problem and lead the way, ADDA, came up with its 3rd version of their Water Workshop, which was held in The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI) on March 23, 2019. The event was supported by knowledge partners Citizen Matters and Biome, Outreach Partners Bangalore Apartment Federation (BAF), BFMA and Whitefield Rising.
The Presenting Sponsor of this event was Eco365, Associate Sponsors WeGot, SmarterHomes, Dhobiwala, CleansCar, EcoSTP, RainyFilters and Supporting Sponsors Akhruthi Enviro-Solutions, Hydroenergizer, and Third-i Inventech Pvt.Ltd.
The event was also attended by dignitaries such as Mr. B. K. Prssad, The National Executive Director of the Indian Plumbing Association and Dr. Rajmohan, Trustee of Bengaluru Environment Trust and President of Domlur Layout.
The event started with a welcoming speech from ADDA Co-Founder and Chief Customer Success, Ashika Sripathi who laid down the event agenda and elaborated the need for Water Conservation in apartment complexes which not only will be helpful in the long run but will also help in lowering down the water costs for the residents and the community as a whole. “We hope, we don’t have to conduct many more workshops towards being water-wise as we all take up sustainable initiatives”, Ashika concluded.
Table of Contents
ADDA Water Workshop Begins
The first session of the water workshop session was headed by Meera from Citizen Matters who gave an event overview and what to expect in the upcoming sessions. Water Workshop was done by ADDA for the first time in 2009, and this 2019 one marked the 10th year of collaboration between Citizen Matters and ADDA.
Odette Katrak, the next speaker, said that for her it all started with her Beautiful Bengaluru Initiative. She spoke about her Theory of Ecowaternomics and the economics of water utility and about keeping the usage minimal. She spoke about the usual tap flow of a user and requested to put the tap off when not required. She concluded with a statement “Reuse more, never let water down a drain if it is good for something else”.
Rebuilding an Urban Water Culture
In the next session was taken over by, Avinash Krishnamurthy from Biome Environmental Trust, one of the Water Workshop expert speakers where he spoke about rebuilding an urban Water culture via the usage of bore wells and recharging them. Furthermore, he added more details on increasing urban reality via multi-sourcing such as Demand Management by Rainwater and Wastewater Reuse.
Rajesh from Brigade Millennium, another expert speaker, in his session spoke about his experiences with the Challenges and Learnings of Rain Water Harvesting. He said that the challenges include confusion regarding RWH objective, design and implementation, testing and acceptance and the general operational issues. The solutions for the mentioned problems as describe by Rajesh are, Residents and Vendors balance, having tanks under a ramp, basic fundamental testing with pipe water and additional storm outlets and pipes.
The following session was a formal introduction to all the sponsors who are the solution providers as well. One key spokesperson from each company came up to the stage to talk about their products and how it can help reduce water consumption in residential communities. This session ended with coffee-break.
Water Metering Case Studies
In the following session, there were 2 case studies where water metering and pricing were discussed. These included a case study of Analog waster meters by Amal Padmanabhan and Ajith. The next one was by Mr. Kamalesh where he spoke about the installation and the following process of Digital (Smart) Water Meters in Mahaveer Seasons, a 120 unit apartment.
STP Plan & Water Conservation
The final session of the workshop was about STP Technologies. Dr. Ananth Kodavasal and Kuntal Shah of Skyline Altis were the speakers in this session. Dr. Ananth Kodavasal spoke about Sewage Treatment Eye Openers and an assessment of various technologies. The Three Cardinal Laws for a good STP mentioned by him are Proper Design, Proper Engineering, and Proper operation and Maintenance. Kuntal Shah, Management Committee member of Skyline Altis described the success story of the STP Plan and Water Conservation in her apartment.
The event was concluded by San Banerjee, Co-Founder, and CEO of ADDA, where she thanked everyone for coming and making it a full house. She also thanked all the partners and sponsors for their support for this event.
Previous Water Workshops: 2009, 2014
Additional Resource
How ADDA can help you: 2 Tips for Water Sufficiency using ADDA