The Hindu Business Line : Conserving water with rain gardens

"They hold water on the landscape so that it can be taken in by plants and soaks into the ground instead of letting it go into the drainage network."

GREEN ZONE SOON: A view of the international airport coming up at Hyderabad.

Hyderabad May 3 When the new international airport gets ready for commercial operations, it would be equipped to handle 1.2 crore people a year — one-and-half times more than the population of Hyderabad.

Can the State capital, already a water-starved city, take this burden? Keeping in mind the tall order of meeting the demand for water, the GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL), which is taking up the project, has set its eyes on saving every drop of water that will fall on the 5,400-acre property and save it to augment the groundwater levels.

The Study

A probable solution to optimise the groundwater recharge is rain gardens — landscaping area with plants, grass and trees — to capture, absorb and retain rain water from all the airport area.

The company roped in the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) and Vimta Labs to conduct a study on the status of ground water, potential for recharging the levels and means to tap that potential. Water requirement of the airport, once it is fully operational, is estimated to be at 2,400 cubic metres a day. The study makes an attempt to analyse the drainage systems, infiltration rates and natural groundwater potential.

A concept developed and successfully demonstrated in Maryland (the US) and other parts in the last decade, rain gardens are meant to collect and hold the rainwater from running off the property, recharge groundwater and avoid erosions.

Groundwater Recharge

"They hold water on the landscape so that it can be taken in by plants and soaks into the ground instead of letting it go into the drainage network," the study pointed out.

Besides reducing usage of potable water to irrigate landscaping areas, rain gardens are likely to increase natural groundwater recharge by about 30 per cent, offsetting loss of recharging area due to constructions. The study also suggested routing of run-offs from runways, taxiways, aprons and other paved surfaces to oil separation tanks for removal of oil and grease and detention basin for removal of sediments, before being discharged into the rainwater harvesting structures.

Visual treat

Besides reducing dependence on the civic bodies for meeting the water needs, the rain gardens will prove to be a visual treat for passengers as their planes land and take off, a scene quite uncommon in Indian airports.

More Stories on : Modernisation | Water | Andhra Pradesh

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