India’s water crisis is no longer limited to its big cities. Smaller towns and peri-urban areas are also increasingly facing chronic water stress due to depleting aquifers, poor waste management, and lack of sustainable infrastructure. But what will happen if one community decides to take the charge and rewrite its water story?
This is the story of Devanahalli, Tumakuru, and the dedicated work of the Biome Environmental Trust, a non-profit that is showing how town-level interventions, rooted in ecology and community engagement, can bring water back to life.
🌿 Devanahalli: Breathing Life into a Forgotten Well
Devanahalli, a town near Bengaluru with a population of about 38,000, was grappling with declining borewell yields and rising salinity. The daily water supply was unreliable and insufficient. Biome Trust stepped in with a unique approach reviving an old open well located near Sihineeru Kere, historically connected to the area’s shallow aquifer.
Photo Courtesy : The Grove
Using treated wastewater from the Hebbal-Nagavara Valley project, this old well was rejuvenated to yield 200 kilolitres per day, increasing the overall municipal supply to around 1,200 KL/day. To ensure safety, a Water Treatment Plant (WTP) was installed, delivering potable water that meets BIS standards.
Yet, that was only the beginning for Biome. A long-term, holistic strategy was set in motion.
- Cleaning and desilting of lakes and channels
- Building wetlands and biodiversity zones
- Installing filter borewells for groundwater recharge
- Reinforcing bunds and ecological buffers
This is not just the infrastructure. It is ecological restoration, backed by municipal cooperation, community participation, and strong design thinking.
Photo Courtesy : The Grove
🏫 Tumakuru’s Kora School: A Rainwater Harvesting Success Story
In nearby Tumakuru, Biome worked with Kora School, which faced challenges in meeting its 4,500-litre daily water requirement. The solution was both elegantly simple and deeply educational.
Two school buildings with a combined 700 sq.m rooftop area were fitted with rainwater harvesting systems. The system channels water through first-flush separators and filtration units into a 15,000-litre sump and subsequently into an overhead tank. Surplus water is sustainably recharged into the ground through a specially designed recharge well.
The impact?
- 5.6 lakh litres of water harvested annually
- 2.8 lakh litres recharged into the aquifer
- Daily needs met for hygiene, cleaning, and gardening
Most importantly, students formed a WASH committee, taking charge of monitoring rainfall, testing water quality, and promoting water stewardship in their community.
🕳️ Reviving Public Wells in Tumakuru
Biome’s work also extends to restoring neglected public wells in Tumakuru’s Upparahalli, Devarayapattana, and Indiranagar. These wells had been abandoned due to poor water quality and encroachment.
By sealing drainage inflows, cleaning the surroundings, and educating locals about usage and maintenance, these wells are now becoming viable community water sources again.
Photo Courtesy : The Grove
🌍 What Makes This Work Different?
Biome Trust’s model isn’t about installing one-off infrastructure. It’s about a systems approach:
✔️ Restore ecology
✔️ Recharge aquifers
✔️ Empower people
✔️ Collaborate with local governments
✔️ Rely on science and local knowledge
These interventions are funded in part by CSR support (e.g., Wipro) and are designed to be replicable across other towns in India.
🙌 Final Thoughts
In an era of tanker-dependence and groundwater depletion, Biome Trust’s work in Karnataka is a beacon of what’s possible when communities, science, and ecology converge. Their success lies not just in water conservation but in reviving dignity, participation, and resilience.
As shared beautifully in their Grove post, this is a model worth learning from, and more importantly, replicating.
Credits:
This blog is based on the original post by Biome Environmental Trust, hosted on Rainmatter Grove. Full details and acknowledgments can be found here.