Normally the concept of rainwater harvesting is viewed as a measure to rejuvenate the groundwater table. But a retired banker in Thanjavur has been successfully harvesting rainwater for cooking purpose for more than a decade.
A visit to the house of M. Somasundaram in Municipal Colony here reveals that it is possible to collect rainwater and store it in plastic containers so that it could be used for cooking and drinking purposes.
Mr. Somasundaram, a retired bank employee, had installed the rainwater harvesting structure in such a manner that the rainwater collected on the open terrace, about 400 square feet, flows through a filter made up of fibre and this filtered water then flows into two 1,000 litre plastic containers placed in the loft of the kitchen and a storeroom in the ground floor.
Appropriate regulator mechanism has also been provided in the system to divert the filtered rainwater to a 5,000 litre capacity sump once the two storage tanks fill up. If the rain is copious, the excess water passes through a filter of river sand on the top layer, charcoal in the middle layer and gravel chips as the final and third layer, and the harvested and purified rainwater is diverted to the 250 feet deep borewell, to recharge the groundwater, said Mr. Somasundaram.
The rainwater harvesting system put up in the year 2009, has helped him avoid facing water shortage problems that are occasionally faced by other residents in the locality.
Mr. Somasundaram added his borewell has never gone dry during the last 10 years.