After two consecutive years of weak monsoons, 330 million people in India, a quarter of country’s population, are affected by severe drought. With Chennai running out of water this year, it is reported by NITI Aayog that 21 cities will run out of ground water by 2020. With deficient and erratic rains in Bhopal for the past few years, the city’s dependence on ground water is set raise by alarming levels. On the other hand, with rapid urban expansion, natural recharging of ground water is diminishing constantly. According to the Ground water board survey, 40% of the city population uses its own borewells to meet its daily water needs.
Global Shapers Bhopal aims to replenish this groundwater through rooftop rainwater harvesting, therefore salvaging every drop that falls on the roofs which is not contaminated. We are collaborating with various residential and industrial associations to sensitize people about the importance of rainwater harvesting and enabling them to get the rainwater filters installed in the respective premises. This would help the citizens of Bhopal to become self-sufficient and hopefully, water surplus in the future. We aim to return 10 crore litres of water back to the groundwater reservoirs in this monsoon season alone, and pledge to increase this number manifold in the years to come.
Water Saving capacity each year = 30,000,000 litres per year (approx)
Water Saved and Ground Water Recharged till now = 36,500,000 Litres
We harvested a total of 65 lakh litres in our first season, Global Shapers Community, Bhopal hub’s season 2 was a of Harvesting Heavens took the project to new heights! Our biggest Motivation to start season-2 is feedback from one of our first installations at Hind Pharma industries, Mr. Aayush Goswami (COO, Hind Pharma) says: “We used to call an average of 10 tankers of 10000 litres every year during summer months, but we didn’t need any tankers this summer, we had ample water in our tubewell! Thanks to the Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting done by Global Shapers Bhopal!” We intend to create more such stories of water resilience in the city and would like to partner with all organizations interested in Harvesting Heavens.