Officials take a look at the new rainwater harvesting system at Beldih Lake Flats. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, April 21: The first rainwater harvesting system in a residential complex in the steel city was inaugurated today.

Deputy commissioner of East Singhbhum Nitin Madan Kulkarni inaugurated the project at Beldih Lake Flats ? a residential complex with 121 apartments and approximately 560 residents.

Though Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company (Jusco) had installed a similar system at the Tata Workers? Union office, this project has set the ball rolling for such systems in the city?s residential complexes.

The project was constructed by pioneers in rainwater harvesting technology ? Chennai-based KRG Rainwater Harvesting ? within a span of eight months. The project cost Rs 15 lakh and is expected to save the users almost 25,200 litre of potable water per day.

Sprawling over almost 12,150 sq ft, the project has a roof area of nearly 3,718 sq ft and a paved area of about4,452 sq ft.

Earlier, a survey at the complex had shown that the average demand of water by the residents was 1,12,000 litres per day. The quantity of water ? rain and otherwise ? that is lost from the complex is 10,477 kiloliters per annum. Subsequently, it was decided to construct recharge wells, collection chambers, filter tankers and a mini artificial aquifer recharge to conserve this water and make it usable.

Speaking on the occasion, Kulkarni said the district administration was going to make it mandatory for all those involved in the construction business to include a rainwater harvesting system in their future projects.

The deputy commissioner called upon Jusco to implement more such projects in their jurisdiction, which has numerous residential complexes.

Sanjiv Paul, managing director of Jusco, said there is a huge deficiency in the availability of water in many areas where Jusco provides the utility. To combat this problem, he added, the concept of rainwater harvesting has been initiated.

G.S. Basu, Jusco?s chief of water services, said there are a few other projects, undertaken by his company, where rainwater harvesting projects have been implemented and, in future, all complexes will have in-built rainwater harvesting systems.

New residential complexes built by Jusco for Tata Steel at Kadma will also have this technology, he added.

K.R. Gopinath of KRG Rainwater Harvesting said he had hoped to complete the project earlier but certain constraints prevented him from doing so. This project is a model one, which shows how a well can be recharged with water, he pointed out.