Your initiative caught my attention immediately. We are implementing a multi-tier rainwater harvesting system in the desert villages of Rajasthan, India. The tanks vary in size from 25,000 to 1,000,000 litres. The tanks are connected to rooftops and interconnected with underground pipes.
Thanks for your interest in our rainwater harvesting system. I’ve been to Rajasthan and water is anything but abundant there. I remember visiting Jaisalmer and being very impressed with the city’s water management system. It seemed the whole city was designed to catch every drop of rain and store it in the huge cisterns.
Please tell me more about your project as I look forward to collaborating with you on this project in the near future
The system we have developed will save you money. Our tanks cost just one cent US per liter of storage capacity which is less expensive than most tanks produced today. It sounds like your project is large so you would enjoy economies of scale as well. Another advantage of low cost is that it makes having a backup tank an option. Conventional tanks are so expensive that building redundancy into the system isn’t feasible due to the cost. With this system, it is. This is an important feature in a place where every drop counts.
Using our system could greatly reduce the time it will take to complete the project. To assemble and install a system on a home takes just a few hours. Even large tanks come ready to assemble from the factory which greatly reduces construction time.
The fact that the home tanks are distributed in kit form allows them to adapt to the home rather than making the home adapt to the tank. For example, the kit can pass through a doorway into a courtyard without having to widen the entryway to accommodate the tank, a key advantage in cities that are hundreds of years old.
Our tanks may help in the construction of your project as well. They are light enough to be transportable. This means it is easy to have water where you need it; for example when you are working with concrete or for drinking water and sanitation for the workers.
Is Rajasthan prone to earthquakes like its neighbors Gujurat and Pakistan? If so then using this new tank design could prepare the city should an earthquake strike since this tank design can survive a quake without cracking. Just having safe water after a disaster can make all the difference.
May I suggest that we talk on phone. You may reach me at 703 582 3956.
We have implemented Aakash Ganga, River from Skies, in three villages. Additional 4 villages are in progress. Here is a brief description.
Aakash Ganga – River from Skies
Washington DC, May 9, 2006, Mr. Paul Wolfowitz, President of World Bank, awarded a grant of $200,000 to Aakash Ganga – River from Skies at the Global Development Market Place held at World Bank headquarters. Aakash Ganga, a rooftop rainwater harvesting scheme was conceived by Dr. BP Agrawal and was implemented by in partnership with Rajasthan Association of North America. . Aakash Ganga was cited for its holistic approach with a bundle of innovations in economics, engineering, cultural integration, equitable distribution, and local organization. The scheme promises to alleviate the chronic shortage of drinking water in Rajasthan villages.
The villages of Rajasthan are faced with a major problem — acute shortage of drinking water. Aakash Ganga aims to provide an economically sustainable and lasting solution to this problem. Rajasthan, with a population of 56 million people, is a drought prone state. For centuries, this drought ridden state had ingenuous rainwater harvesting structures and an indigenous levy system to pay for the upkeep. These structures formed an integral part of local culture. (Mothers would worship the village well at child birth.) Unfortunately, the traditional schemes could compete neither with the convenience of running water supply nor with the promise of “free” water. Consequently, the traditional rainwater harvesting schemes were orphaned. Their demise, it is conjectured, was hastened by public policy, urbanization, and changing life-style.
In 2003, the chronic shortage of drinking water challenged the imagination of the Rajasthan Association of North America (RANA), (non-resident Indians (NRI) of Rajasthan origin), to find a permanent solution. It was reasoned that changing economics, rather lack of it, was a single dominant factor that orphaned the elaborate rainwater harvesting systems of yester. Speculative or true, it propelled RANA to find an “out-of-box” solution that was economically viable, self-sustaining and replicable. And Aakash Ganga – River from Skies was born. In 2004 – 2005, Aakash Ganga was implemented, on experimental basis, in three villages to comprehend the requirements for its success, to debunk or accept the prevailing common perceptions (For example, villagers would not pay for water.), and to find innovative solutions to the challenges. Our partners in these implementations were Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), the premier engineering institute of Rajasthan, and Bhoruka Charitable Trust (BCT), a reputed NGO with unmatched commitment to public service.
The three experimental implementations at Pilani, Raila, and Indrasar revealed numerous requirements that, if not addressed, would spell project’s death. These requirements demanded innovative approaches covering a wide expanse: technical, economical, capacity, social equitability, cultural integration, administrative, environmental, and marketing. That is, Aakash Ganga is a bundle of pioneering innovations with associated risks and challenges. A select group of these innovations are described below.
New Economic Model: Aakash Ganga is analogous to a “water exchange” wherein an organizational entity acquires rights for a fee, from the homeowners, to harvest their rooftop rainwater during the rainy season. (For the homeowners it is “free” money as the homes are not designed to collect and store rainwater.) It supplies the stored and filtered drinking water to the villagers at a fee that is affordable, economically viable and socially equitable. At a macro-economic level, the “water exchange” model converts the annual public expenditure on trucking or transporting water into an infrastructural investment.
Advanced Technologies: Aakash Ganga deployed the satellite images of Raila village to optimize the water collection network and location of storage tanks, refer Exhibit 1: Raila Rainwater Harvesting Scheme, below.
Exhibit 1: Raila Rainwater Harvesting Scheme
BITS, Pilani, computerized the whole design process, would serve as the knowledge center, and would prepare the blueprints for other villages. The computerization shortened the implementation period and eliminated the need for extensive surveys.
Based on the three implementations, we estimated that materials constitute 60 - 70% project cost. The local population is not skilled to monitor water quality. We, therefore, are investigating two potent technologies: low-cost materials and sensors. The monitoring should be as simple as Federal Express tracking a package.
Societal Behavioral Change: Villagers staunchly believe “free water” to be an entitlement and hold government responsible for their precarious water supply. To overcome this mindset, the field workers used Indian mythological stories to gain the support of women. (A dip in Ganga leads to salvation.) Weaning the masses away from dependency to self reliance will require continual persuasion.
Exhibit 2: Raila Grandmother Drawing Water from Aakash Ganga Tank
Partnership: Villagers’ trust is essential for Aakash Ganga’s succcess. To win this trust, we conceived a socially responsive local body, managed by an entrepreneur and with an advisory board of 5 people from the village. These advisors have unhindered access to the finances and water usage. However, they cannot interfere in daily operation.
Public Policy Formulation: The dire shortage of drinking water has prompted the Rajasthan Government to formulate a public policy for widespread adoption of rooftop rainwater harvesting both in the rural and urban areas. The Aakash Ganga experience may provide the essential data to base the public policy on.
Cultural Integration: The villages lack a sanitation and waste disposal system. The absence of such a system may lead to defecating of the water tanks or reservoirs. To guard against such an eventuality, the Gram reservoir was promoted as the place for worship. (Local tradition dictates new mothers to perform worship at village well.) Aakash Ganga will offer flower bouquets to mothers at worship time.
Capacity Building: The proposed rainwater harvesting scheme has a multi-tier architecture consisting of a “Griha” (Home) tank, attached to an individual house, Sammoha (Collective) tank for collecting overflows from a group of houses, and a Gram (village) reservoir, a large capacity reservoir for the village, refer Exhibit 3: Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Network. The Griha tank is designed to meet the drinking water needs of the house for 6 – 12 months with average rainfall. The network can be scaled to suit a large community.
Exhibit 3: Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Network
Under the World Bank grant, Aakash Ganga will be implemented in one or two villages with a population of 5,000. This implementation will serve as a blueprint for replication in 50 – 100 villages by 2012.
The World Bank cited Aakash Ganga as a holistic approach for encouraging both rural and urban communities to adopt rainwater harvesting. Aakash Ganga’s success, it is envisioned, would assist the Government of Rajasthan in formulating public policy for widespread adoption of rainwater harvesting.
Outstanding idea, particularly when combined with the concept of micro loans. Have you considered offering the kit here in the United States? Growing up in Oklahoma, I saw the need for water conservation in many areas, particularly in American Indian communities. My wife's tribe, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and my enrolled tribe, the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, are both located in the (relatively) wet southeastern part of the state, but drought still affects us all, and western Oklahoma and west Texas are constantly struggling with drought. The Dine (Navaho), Hopi, and other Pueblo tribes have many tribal members living in isolated, hard-to-reach parts of the reservations, and they could certainly benefit from a steady, clean source of water (as could many other southwestern U.S. residents, regardless of race).
I'm all for helping our world neighbors across the oceans, but I also feel that an inexpensive, innovative idea such as this should be offered to needy indigenous and non-indigenous Americans as well -
Thank you so much for your kind words. And thank you for sharing your wonderful idea! You are right, there is a market for this product right here in America with the native Americans living traditional lifestyles. While traveling to places like Chaco, Canyon de Chelly, and Mesa Verde, I was struck by how many native Americans live in remote locations and they don’t have electricity. A rainwater collection system might be a welcome addition.
There are other markets for this system in the US. Environmentalists, health conscious people, gardeners, those living in the southwest, and those living off the grid could all benefit from this system. Other groups such as hippies, migrant workers, and those drinking poor tasting well water would also benefit.
I'm sorry your innovation didn't make the finalist list (at least you're in good company!). Do you all have a website I could visit for more information, and/or do you have brochures, etc.? I would like to keep up with what's going on with your project -
cheer's,
hey guy's, do u visit in rajasthan. there are so many places to visit like: mount abu, pushkar, udaipur, jaipur, ajmer, bikaner, jaisalmer and many more interesting places. here you can find forts, lakes, gardens, deserts, temples, and here you can take enjoy of camel safari and the royal train. whenever you make a plan to visit rajasthan first you collect all informations regarding to rajasthan tourist places, there are so many sites are available on web but rajasthantour4u i like the most.
Comments
Dear Reed:
Your initiative caught my attention immediately. We are implementing a multi-tier rainwater harvesting system in the desert villages of Rajasthan, India. The tanks vary in size from 25,000 to 1,000,000 litres. The tanks are connected to rooftops and interconnected with underground pipes.
Let us explore opportunities for collaboration.
Thanks,
BP
Hello BP,
Thanks for your interest in our rainwater harvesting system. I’ve been to Rajasthan and water is anything but abundant there. I remember visiting Jaisalmer and being very impressed with the city’s water management system. It seemed the whole city was designed to catch every drop of rain and store it in the huge cisterns.
Please tell me more about your project as I look forward to collaborating with you on this project in the near future
The system we have developed will save you money. Our tanks cost just one cent US per liter of storage capacity which is less expensive than most tanks produced today. It sounds like your project is large so you would enjoy economies of scale as well. Another advantage of low cost is that it makes having a backup tank an option. Conventional tanks are so expensive that building redundancy into the system isn’t feasible due to the cost. With this system, it is. This is an important feature in a place where every drop counts.
Using our system could greatly reduce the time it will take to complete the project. To assemble and install a system on a home takes just a few hours. Even large tanks come ready to assemble from the factory which greatly reduces construction time.
The fact that the home tanks are distributed in kit form allows them to adapt to the home rather than making the home adapt to the tank. For example, the kit can pass through a doorway into a courtyard without having to widen the entryway to accommodate the tank, a key advantage in cities that are hundreds of years old.
Our tanks may help in the construction of your project as well. They are light enough to be transportable. This means it is easy to have water where you need it; for example when you are working with concrete or for drinking water and sanitation for the workers.
Is Rajasthan prone to earthquakes like its neighbors Gujurat and Pakistan? If so then using this new tank design could prepare the city should an earthquake strike since this tank design can survive a quake without cracking. Just having safe water after a disaster can make all the difference.
Regards,
Reed
Hi Reed:
May I suggest that we talk on phone. You may reach me at 703 582 3956.
We have implemented Aakash Ganga, River from Skies, in three villages. Additional 4 villages are in progress. Here is a brief description.
Aakash Ganga – River from Skies
Washington DC, May 9, 2006, Mr. Paul Wolfowitz, President of World Bank, awarded a grant of $200,000 to Aakash Ganga – River from Skies at the Global Development Market Place held at World Bank headquarters. Aakash Ganga, a rooftop rainwater harvesting scheme was conceived by Dr. BP Agrawal and was implemented by in partnership with Rajasthan Association of North America. . Aakash Ganga was cited for its holistic approach with a bundle of innovations in economics, engineering, cultural integration, equitable distribution, and local organization. The scheme promises to alleviate the chronic shortage of drinking water in Rajasthan villages.
The villages of Rajasthan are faced with a major problem — acute shortage of drinking water. Aakash Ganga aims to provide an economically sustainable and lasting solution to this problem. Rajasthan, with a population of 56 million people, is a drought prone state. For centuries, this drought ridden state had ingenuous rainwater harvesting structures and an indigenous levy system to pay for the upkeep. These structures formed an integral part of local culture. (Mothers would worship the village well at child birth.) Unfortunately, the traditional schemes could compete neither with the convenience of running water supply nor with the promise of “free” water. Consequently, the traditional rainwater harvesting schemes were orphaned. Their demise, it is conjectured, was hastened by public policy, urbanization, and changing life-style.
In 2003, the chronic shortage of drinking water challenged the imagination of the Rajasthan Association of North America (RANA), (non-resident Indians (NRI) of Rajasthan origin), to find a permanent solution. It was reasoned that changing economics, rather lack of it, was a single dominant factor that orphaned the elaborate rainwater harvesting systems of yester. Speculative or true, it propelled RANA to find an “out-of-box” solution that was economically viable, self-sustaining and replicable. And Aakash Ganga – River from Skies was born. In 2004 – 2005, Aakash Ganga was implemented, on experimental basis, in three villages to comprehend the requirements for its success, to debunk or accept the prevailing common perceptions (For example, villagers would not pay for water.), and to find innovative solutions to the challenges. Our partners in these implementations were Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), the premier engineering institute of Rajasthan, and Bhoruka Charitable Trust (BCT), a reputed NGO with unmatched commitment to public service.
The three experimental implementations at Pilani, Raila, and Indrasar revealed numerous requirements that, if not addressed, would spell project’s death. These requirements demanded innovative approaches covering a wide expanse: technical, economical, capacity, social equitability, cultural integration, administrative, environmental, and marketing. That is, Aakash Ganga is a bundle of pioneering innovations with associated risks and challenges. A select group of these innovations are described below.
New Economic Model: Aakash Ganga is analogous to a “water exchange” wherein an organizational entity acquires rights for a fee, from the homeowners, to harvest their rooftop rainwater during the rainy season. (For the homeowners it is “free” money as the homes are not designed to collect and store rainwater.) It supplies the stored and filtered drinking water to the villagers at a fee that is affordable, economically viable and socially equitable. At a macro-economic level, the “water exchange” model converts the annual public expenditure on trucking or transporting water into an infrastructural investment.
Advanced Technologies: Aakash Ganga deployed the satellite images of Raila village to optimize the water collection network and location of storage tanks, refer Exhibit 1: Raila Rainwater Harvesting Scheme, below.
Exhibit 1: Raila Rainwater Harvesting Scheme
BITS, Pilani, computerized the whole design process, would serve as the knowledge center, and would prepare the blueprints for other villages. The computerization shortened the implementation period and eliminated the need for extensive surveys.
Based on the three implementations, we estimated that materials constitute 60 - 70% project cost. The local population is not skilled to monitor water quality. We, therefore, are investigating two potent technologies: low-cost materials and sensors. The monitoring should be as simple as Federal Express tracking a package.
Societal Behavioral Change: Villagers staunchly believe “free water” to be an entitlement and hold government responsible for their precarious water supply. To overcome this mindset, the field workers used Indian mythological stories to gain the support of women. (A dip in Ganga leads to salvation.) Weaning the masses away from dependency to self reliance will require continual persuasion.
Exhibit 2: Raila Grandmother Drawing Water from Aakash Ganga Tank
Partnership: Villagers’ trust is essential for Aakash Ganga’s succcess. To win this trust, we conceived a socially responsive local body, managed by an entrepreneur and with an advisory board of 5 people from the village. These advisors have unhindered access to the finances and water usage. However, they cannot interfere in daily operation.
Public Policy Formulation: The dire shortage of drinking water has prompted the Rajasthan Government to formulate a public policy for widespread adoption of rooftop rainwater harvesting both in the rural and urban areas. The Aakash Ganga experience may provide the essential data to base the public policy on.
Cultural Integration: The villages lack a sanitation and waste disposal system. The absence of such a system may lead to defecating of the water tanks or reservoirs. To guard against such an eventuality, the Gram reservoir was promoted as the place for worship. (Local tradition dictates new mothers to perform worship at village well.) Aakash Ganga will offer flower bouquets to mothers at worship time.
Capacity Building: The proposed rainwater harvesting scheme has a multi-tier architecture consisting of a “Griha” (Home) tank, attached to an individual house, Sammoha (Collective) tank for collecting overflows from a group of houses, and a Gram (village) reservoir, a large capacity reservoir for the village, refer Exhibit 3: Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Network. The Griha tank is designed to meet the drinking water needs of the house for 6 – 12 months with average rainfall. The network can be scaled to suit a large community.
Exhibit 3: Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Network
Under the World Bank grant, Aakash Ganga will be implemented in one or two villages with a population of 5,000. This implementation will serve as a blueprint for replication in 50 – 100 villages by 2012.
The World Bank cited Aakash Ganga as a holistic approach for encouraging both rural and urban communities to adopt rainwater harvesting. Aakash Ganga’s success, it is envisioned, would assist the Government of Rajasthan in formulating public policy for widespread adoption of rainwater harvesting.
Reed -
Outstanding idea, particularly when combined with the concept of micro loans. Have you considered offering the kit here in the United States? Growing up in Oklahoma, I saw the need for water conservation in many areas, particularly in American Indian communities. My wife's tribe, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and my enrolled tribe, the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, are both located in the (relatively) wet southeastern part of the state, but drought still affects us all, and western Oklahoma and west Texas are constantly struggling with drought. The Dine (Navaho), Hopi, and other Pueblo tribes have many tribal members living in isolated, hard-to-reach parts of the reservations, and they could certainly benefit from a steady, clean source of water (as could many other southwestern U.S. residents, regardless of race).
I'm all for helping our world neighbors across the oceans, but I also feel that an inexpensive, innovative idea such as this should be offered to needy indigenous and non-indigenous Americans as well -
Good luck with your project,
Morgan Ehn
Morgan -
Thank you so much for your kind words. And thank you for sharing your wonderful idea! You are right, there is a market for this product right here in America with the native Americans living traditional lifestyles. While traveling to places like Chaco, Canyon de Chelly, and Mesa Verde, I was struck by how many native Americans live in remote locations and they don’t have electricity. A rainwater collection system might be a welcome addition.
There are other markets for this system in the US. Environmentalists, health conscious people, gardeners, those living in the southwest, and those living off the grid could all benefit from this system. Other groups such as hippies, migrant workers, and those drinking poor tasting well water would also benefit.
Reed
Reed -
I'm sorry your innovation didn't make the finalist list (at least you're in good company!). Do you all have a website I could visit for more information, and/or do you have brochures, etc.? I would like to keep up with what's going on with your project -
Thanks and best of luck in the future -
Morgan Ehn
JPS Health Network
Fort Worth, TX
cheer's,
hey guy's, do u visit in rajasthan. there are so many places to visit like: mount abu, pushkar, udaipur, jaipur, ajmer, bikaner, jaisalmer and many more interesting places. here you can find forts, lakes, gardens, deserts, temples, and here you can take enjoy of camel safari and the royal train. whenever you make a plan to visit rajasthan first you collect all informations regarding to rajasthan tourist places, there are so many sites are available on web but rajasthantour4u i like the most.
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