The Rainwater Harvesting System established in Kamala Nehru College is an example of its proactive approach towards environment conservation. The existing rainwater harvesting system was first established under the aegis of former Principal, Dr. Surinder Sharma and then Environment Club Convener Late Dr. Roopa Bajpayee in the late 1990s. Since then, we have been doing rainwater harvesting in College as supported by Principal Dr. Minoti Chatterjee(2004-15). The system set-up is called the Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting. In this case, the rooftop of the Library building is the catchment area that catches the rainwater, which is then diverted through down take pipes to the gutters. The gutters then divert the rainwater to the main pit where the bore is made.
In 2017-18, under the guidance of Dr. Kalpana Bhakuni (Officiating Principal from 2017), we got in touch with a not-for-profit organisation called Forum for Organised Resource Conservation and Enhancement (FORCE) to make the existing system work more efficiently. They helped us calculate the existing rainwater harvesting capacity and the possibilities of expansion to other buildings. A two membered team from the organisation also cleaned up the system and made it functional and prepared for the coming monsoon. We also plan to expand rain water harvesting system to other constructed areas in near future.
Figure: A notional map of the existing rainwater harvesting system in Kamala Nehru College.
