Mumbai, February 2023: Puravankara, in partnership with the Biome Environmental Trust and Hunasamaranahalli Town Municipal Council (TMC), has helped revive 6 open wells and set up rainwater harvesting for Sonnappanahalli Government Higher Primary School (GHPS). These projects were formally handed over to the authorities today.
“As a company, Puravankara has always supported innovative solutions that enrich communities and address broader environmental challenges. Water is central to our CSR efforts focused on rejuvenating natural aquifers through reviving wells and rainwater harvesting. Conservation initiatives like these are very important to us for the sustainable growth of Bengaluru,” said Abhishek Kapoor, CEO of Puravankara Limited.
Up to 2 lakh liters of water is pumped daily from 1 revived open well and supplied to the community by the TMC. A pipeline is being laid from another well to pump water to a few other wards. This well has the potential to yield up to 1 lakh liters of water per day. Water meters have been installed on the pumping lines to monitor the volume of water pumped out of these 2 wells and, consequently, from the aquifer. Water is drawn manually using a pulley and a bucket from 3 other wells. From the 6th well, water is pumped to a few homes, and the community also uses it by drawing from the well manually. At 2 wells the local community has insisted authorities NOT install electrical pumps as that often results in water wastage, leaving them without water during summer when it is needed most.
“Adopting a livelihood-based approach involving the traditional well-digging community as part of the solution, Biome seeks to demonstrate that water sustainability and ecological sustainability can be achieved. We also would like to show that shallow aquifers, represented by open wells are climate resilient and climate mitigating, which is being demonstrated in the project at TMC Hunsamaranahalli, along with Puravankara,” said Vishwanath S, Founder Trustee, Biome Environmental Trust.
In addition, a rainwater harvesting system, storing rainwater drawn from 2,250 sq ft of the rooftop, as well as redirection of overflow from the sump, to a recharge well of 4 feet diameter and 15 feet depth has been implemented in Sonnappanahalli GHPS. This system has the capacity to harvest 1.80 lakh liters of water in a year. The school has also adopted aerators to reduce water usage and is on its way to becoming a model school in demonstrating water conservation practices. Revival of Wells at Hunasamaranahalli and rainwater harvesting system at Sonnappanahalli GHPS was supported through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contributions from Puravankara Limited and its subsidiaries Provident Housing Limited, and Starworth Infrastructure and Construction Limited. Today an event was held to formally hand over the revived open wells to the TMC and the Rainwater harvesting system to the school. The TMC thanked Puravankara Group and Biome for their efforts and offered their continuing support for such positive interventions in the future.