OREANDA-NEWS. Tata Power, India’s largest integrated power utility, has continuously endeavoured to spread the message of resource conservation. In continuation with this philosophy, Tata Power’s Jojobera team installed a rainwater harvesting structure in the nearby Bina-Pani School of Dhanchatani area in Jamshedpur to address the pressing issue of scarcity of water.

The ground water table has slowly receded in the area causing hand pumps, wells and other water bodies to dry up which gets severe during summer. It also prevents more than 275 students from attending school. Thus, the project has been specifically designed to address these issues.

The school administration, students and teachers treat the structure as community property and appreciated Tata Power’s efforts in addressing a crucial problem of the school through involvement of panchayati raj institution representatives, the school itself and technical help of KRG, an organisation famed for watershed management, rainwater harvesting structures.

Speaking about the initiative, DS Kudalkar, head, Jojobera station, said, “Tata Power believes in the philosophy of improving quality of life of the communities living in, and around its area of operations. Conserving environment and augmenting social infrastructure is one of the key endeavours of our community development efforts. Apart from supplying water through tankers, we are also working with villagers on rain water harvesting, sensitisation on water conservation and pond deepening to increase surface water availability in the area. This will help in recharging the ground water and rejuvenating the neighbouring pumps and wells. We hope that our initiatives also help in creating enabling environment in schools by addressing low attendance among students.”

Rooftop rainwater harvesting system is a process where rain water is collected over building roofs and sheds to be utilised later. The rainwater harvesting structure facilitates continuous recharge of the existing bore well. The runoff water generated from the open area near the harvesting tank will be utilised for charging the aquifer of the school building premise by providing contour bunds, collection chambers and other site specific structures. This will increase the quantity and quality of ground water and gradually maintain a sustainable yield for the existing water extraction structure and has a recharging potential of 10,000 cubic metre.