A modest G+1 building near Indore, Madhya Pradesh of India is featured in a documentary that has bagged Delft Urban Water media contest of 2014, reports Hindustan Times.
The film was directed by Makarand Purohit, titled ‘A House of Solutions’. Right now, the building houses office of Dhas Gramin Vikas Kendra, located at Khandwa road, near Indore.
The annual award is given by Delft Water Centre in Holland, to tackle future issues on increasing urbanisation, flooding and shortage of good quality water by bringing together scientists, students and policymakers.
In this 6 minute film judges, panel members and other viewers were guided through a household with different water solutions, where Rahul Banerjee, the building owner and water expert narrates about how water and sanitation problems can be managed at home by using a water and energy saving model.
In a country like India, where most of the cities are facing major water crisis, Purohit explains inventive solutions to harness the urban cycles of water and energy. He works for India Water portal also.
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The jury was especially impressed by the creative use of few resources that led to massive improvements to the water use of the house. The combination of creativity and the range of inventive and practical solutions was also inspiring..
Purohit decided to shoot the short film after reading Bannerjee’s study on the topic and ever since the film was uploaded on the portal many people contacted to know about Rahul’s whereabouts. The film, at present is available on You Tube.
Moreover, Bannerjee has installed rooftop and wastewater harvesting systems that not only help conserve water but also keep power bills down to a bare minimum.
The rooftop system drips water on to khus sheets that hang outside every window, cooling the incoming air. Rainwater is fed to a bore overlaid with brick and sand while excess water is funnelled to a garden fronting the house via a pair of thick pipes to creepers that cover practically the entire facade. Wastewater is trapped through a separate system.
The entire thing cost me just around Rs. 50,000 at today’s rates. Since the house is around 1,500 sq feet it works out to a mere Rs. 30 per sq feet, Bannerjee pointed out.
Sabeena Wahid