Rainwater Harvesting

A large open well runs dry and is preserved as a memory in the landscape.

looking down a large dry brick well with small tree growing at bottom

India’s unregulated construction boom has come at an enormous environmental cost: the planet’s most dangerously polluted cities, heavily quarried landscapes, huge loss of agricultural land, ecologically dead rivers and persistent power cuts. In addition, the alarming extraction and depletion of ground water – caused by an over-dependence on borewells across both urban and rural areas - sees the country sleepwalking into an apocalyptic environmental future.

In response to this crisis, Jateen Lad has designed a model rainwater harvesting system, based on age-old principles, to capture monsoon rains to improve supplies. It is hoped components of the system will encourage urban developers and farmers alike.

Contour drains and recharge wells.....

Rainwater Harvesting, All surface water flows are diverted into a rainwater trench. Photograph by Jateen Lad.

.....diverting surface water flows into a narrow rainwater trench

Rainwater Harvesting, The brick excavation pit acts as a reservoir for the harvested surface water. Photograph by Jateen Lad.

.....flowing into in a 1,000,000 litre capacity reservoir lined in puddle-clay

Rainwater Harvesting, The harvested surface water is used in irrigating over 1,600 saplings across the farm. Photograph by Jateen Lad.

Traditional pot-based drip irrigation using harvested surface water

Surface run-offs are captured through a network of contour drains, recharge wells and trenches, planted with vetiver grass and glyricedia as natural check dams, into a large reservoir lined in puddle-clay. The water is pumped for re-use across the farm’s drip irrigation system.

Excavations for the 80,000 litre rainwater tank

Rainwater Harvesting Tank, Casting the circular raft foundation and slab. Photograph by Trupti Doshi.

Casting the circular raft foundation and slab of the rainwater tank

Hand-made precast T-beams

Local pottery spanning across inverted T-beams

Rainwater Harvesting, Inverted T-beams spanning across the circular masonry tank. Photograph by Jateen Lad.

Inverted T-beams spanning the circular masonry tank

Rainwater Harvesting, Prototype circular rainwater tank. Photograph by Jateen Lad.

80,000 litre circular rainwater tank

Rooftop rainwater is collected and piped through a graded filtration chamber into an 80,000 litre capacity underground masonry sump for recycling in bathrooms and washing areas. An innovative sump cover uses earth blocks and local pottery spanning across hand-made precast T-beams to provide a lighter, cost-effective and elegant alternative to the conventional insitu cast reinforced concrete slab.

excavated wall of red earth with simple tools at sharanam pondicherry

Project: Surface Water and Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting
Location: Pondicherry, India
Client: SARVAM

Status: Completed

Architecture & Construction Management: Jateen Lad

Geotechnical Engineer: IV Anirudhan, Geotechnical Solutions
Filtration System: BIOME Solutions
Structural Engineer: Doug King

Masonry: Kumar, Manibalan, Sisubalan | Precasting and Steelwork | Bhaktawatchalam, Manikandan | Plumbing and Pipework: Jayawardene.