36 Roofs for 24/7 Water: Harvesting Rainfall in Badlapur
Kulgaon-Badlapur, one of the faster growing towns in Mumbai, has taken the age-old tradition of rainwater harvesting to a whole new level.
In March 2007, Badlapur residents installed a rainwater harvesting demonstration unit in their town using modern methods unavailable to their ancestors. With rain gutters and pipes, they connected the roofs of 36 apartment buildings forming a system that captures and stores rainwater. An electric pump is used to pump water back into the buildings’ taps for everyday households' use. This was quite different from the system used by ancient peoples who lived in the Kanheri or Ajanta Ellora Caves or from the wells in Rameshwaram, Tamilnadu.
