No More wading through floodwaters for homeowners
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, June 27: RAINWATER harvesting wells recently constructed by the Space Applications Centre will finally provide relief to low-lying residential societies around the SAC which were flooded in the monsoon for years by water flowing out its 80-acre campus.
SAC has built two rainwater collection ponds, each of a capacity of five lakh litres, along the compound wall facing the aggrieved residential societies at a cost of Rs 9.12 lakh. In addition to the eight rainwater recharge wells which were built almost eight years ago, SAC added another eight rainwater harvesting wells two months ago at a cost of Rs 17.24 lakh. Three of these wells are inside the ponds along the compound wall facing Ashoknagar and Jyoti Kalash societies.
These will prevent rainwater from flowing into the societies which were earlier flooded. It will also help in raising the water table in the area.
Earlier, residents of the Ashoknagar and Jyoti Kalash societies had repeatedly complained against the monsoon deluge which enters their homes.
MS Rajagopalan, a resident of Jyoti Kalash, said, “In the past, we have written to newspapers and even met the Director of ISRO to voice our displeasure at the ineffective drainage of rainwater from the SAC campus. During heavy monsoon, water enters our homes and we have had to shift to higher floors to avoid walking through pools in the house.”
The SAC management department finally sat up and took note of the residents’ woes. NK Panchal, head of the Engineering Maintenance Department (EMD), said, “We wish to be good neighbours. After the heavy monsoon last year, we decided to invest in an extensive system of stormwater drains and rainwater collection ponds to retain maximum rainwater within our compound.”
President of Jyoti Kalash society, H Ramalingam said, “We are satisfied with the measures they have taken.”
The compound wall which was earlier made of brick and mortar has also been reinforced to prevent it from collapsing. An old resident of Ashoknagar says, “In the last 15 years, the amount of rainwater gushing out has led to its collapse 23 times.”
SAC is also demolishing 15 of the old hangars within its campus and converting it into a green belt. The compound already has more than 250 peacocks and several varieties of birds and snakes.
Source: Indian Express