A Society in Pune Is Fighting Water Scarcity & Saving ₹ 20 Lakh Every Year. Here’s How

Here’s how Roseland Residency in Pune is embracing a green lifestyle with tools like rainwater harvesting, waste management, and tree plantation.

Scorching summers and an acute shortage of water go hand in hand in many cities. Every summer, water woes make urban residents spend lakhs of rupees on tankers.

One housing society in Pune decided to bring about a change and utilise rainwater to meet its water needs and emerged successful.

Roseland Residency in Pune’s suburb Pimple Saudagar has been implementing Rainwater Harvesting successfully for the past decade and has never had to buy a single tanker since.

The residents as well as the managing committee conducted research about different models of rainwater harvesting like that of Mr Kedia in Aurangabad across Maharashtra and decided to run a pilot project to use rainwater harvesting to refill the society’s bore wells.

In 2009, the pilot project was implemented in six buildings by spending Rs 2.5 to Rs 3 lakh. Then the society kept adding seven to eight buildings every year. Today, all 22 bore wells get recharged with fresh rainwater every monsoon and the society ends up saving over Rs 20 lakh every year, according to Santosh.

The society has not only managed to remain tanker-free, but has also managed to reduce water consumption drastically by employing some innovative solutions. The society members have managed to curb almost 30 per cent of their earlier water consumption.

The society has since continued to take more steps towards a sustainable lifestyle. By employing small energy-saving solutions like installing CFL and LED light bulbs in the society’s campus, the residents end up saving over 1 lakh units of electricity every month.

Considering that there was no park in the vicinity, the society’s residents decided to conduct a plantation drive in the society.

Now, the 12-acre campus of the society is home to over 3000 trees and plants including fruits like mangoes, black berry, guava and tamarind.

Tree plantation initiative (left), bird feeder in the society (top right) and rainwater harvesting system (right bottom)

The society has also set an example in waste management by achieving 100% segregation of waste at the source.

“We wish to take up many more such initiatives in the future. We have over 2000 residents who have a say in the decision making process and everyone has agreed on each and every initiative we took. If your ideas make sense, it’s not difficult to convince people. We’ll keep going the eco-friendly way. Ultimately, it benefits nobody but us,” concludes Santosh.