WRI India — Emerging Water Leaders Program

Twitter is a magical place sometimes. One morning during my commute, I was scrolling through Twitter on the hunt for new articles that had recently been published on urban water systems and came across a post by the World Resources Institute of India (WRI India) which called for Emerging Water Leaders to come to Bengaluru to study the urban water infrastructure for three days. The Accelerated Development Program for Emerging Water Leaders was a pilot program for ways to engage with the knowledge community in various sectors. The WRI invited ten water scholars and practitioners to join them at their office and participate in three days of in-office learning as well as field visits to sites throughout Bengaluru showcasing large-scale water infrastructures.

Day One
We began with an introduction by the WRI India team: Samrat, Sahana, and Sindhuja. They shared about their research and why they had developed this program. We then traveled to see the K-100 project, also known as the Citizens’ Waterway Project, which was brought forth by architect Naresh Narasimhan of Mod Foundation and is being completed by a collaboration between public and private partners including the BBMP, BWSSB, the Karnataka State Pollution Board, JN Projects, and subcontractors from multiple sectors.

Mr. V.M. Rajaguru, the engineer on the project, and his daughter Amulya gave us a tour of the project and talked to us about the work they had to do to clean up this stretch including the catchment. It is still a work in progress but you can definitely see a difference from what it was before. See the video by Mod Foundation for more information and read about the project here.

After we ended our time at the Citizens Waterway, we made our way to the BWSSB’s Sir M. Visvesvaraya Rainwater Harvesting Theme Park where we discussed rainwater harvesting techniques, filtration systems, pollution management techniques, and potential pitfalls of these systems. Our guide shared on recharge wells and the potential for storage and recharge to build resiliency within the water sector of Bengaluru. This park is open to the public and has a very in-depth museum display showcasing efficient in-house water systems like low-flow sinks, grey water recycling, and hose attachments to make them more water efficient. Outside, our guide showed us multiple scales of solutions from a 3’x20’ recharge well to an entire storage tank that connects to a small bioswale.

Day Two

Once we all arrived at the WRI India office, we took part in an exercise challenging us to take on a role within a community in solving a water-related challenge. My team was asked to think through decentralized solid waste management in a peri-urban setting. This location had a central lake with agriculture to the southside and was near a larger and growing city. We each participated as a stakeholder, from a young woman to an NGO representative, a farmer, and a government official. We each thought through the problem from our own perspective and proposed solutions accordingly.

After the exercise and a warm cup of chai, we headed out to Devanahalli to visit the Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant which manages the sludge from a 20km radius and turns it into compost for the farmers. They receive the sludge and process it first in a “feeding” tank to separate liquids from solids and then a biogas digester is used to process the gases produced. The waste is then conveyed to a stabilization tank then through a series of terraced tanks that continue to filter out the solids. The leftover wastewater is pumped to an Anaerobic Baffle Reactor (ARB) and then used to water the tall grasses and flowers on the site. The sludge is pumped into a drying house. The final step is to take the dried sludge and combine it with compostable scraps including grasses, and other biodegradable dry waste. It is churned and churned then becomes a rich compost that they sell for 7R/kg to local farmers.

We ended the day at Jakkur Lake, led by Dr. Anupama Kamat, one of the founding members of the citizens’ group called JalaPoshan. She told us the history of the lake and the work that was done to revive the lake. She invited us all to join the JalaPoshan and be an active participants in the stewardship of this lake.

Day Three

Just the words “Bellandur Lake” carries weight in the global conversation on water, known for its firey and foamy surface highlighting its toxicity. Our tour began at the Pumping Station for the “Kolar Minor Irrigation Lift Irrigation Stage 2” which is pumping 400 MLD to Kolar (over 40 km northeast of the city), a region known for its Gold mine and arid climate. We arrived early at the Pumping Station that is supporting the conveyance of 400 MLD of treated wastewater to this region to fill over 4,000 lakes in the region, reviving the agriculture economy that has been drastically impacted in recent decades. We met with the engineer who showed us maps of the pipeline and photos of the lakes which were being revived. These photos depicted lakes filled to the brim, in comparison to the nearly dry beds that were shown adjacent.