Ms Devika, from Rolling Hills, Hyderabad, talking about their novel Water management initiatives she mentioned how Hundreds of tankers which used to be consumed was reduced to just around 60 tankers this summer.

1. Water
Management
Save Water, Secure the Future!
Devika Ashrit
Joint Secretary, Rolling Hills House
Owners Association
Presented for ADDA
Rise High Awards 2018

4. Key milestones in our
journey...- STP treated water for all community garden purposes
- Rain water harvesting pits in community areas to recharge the bores
- Fixing float valves in the sumps to cut off water supply when full
- Using Adda community tickets to report and fix water leaks in the
community
- Using Adda poll to gauge the different kinds of water issues in the
community during summer
- Installed pressure pump and flow meters to check and adjust the valves
for equitable water distribution
- Tracking the number of water tankers to assess the situation
- Latest water/sewage infrastructure diagrams of the community
- Next steps: Recommending Water and STP audit in the coming AGM

5. Setting
Context...
● Rolling Hills manages bore water supply to its members
● Drinking water is supplied by municipality - HMWSSB
● Rolling Hills has large areas of green in the otherwise concretized Hi-Tech
city area.
● We have lot of mature trees lining our community roads and three parks.
● We maintain large green stretches outside the community boundaries as well.
● The water requirements are quite high for these large green spaces.

10. Problem - Vicious Cycle of Water
Issues● Inequitable distribution of water due to undulations in the natural terrain
● Staff negligence in filling the sump and overhead tank to the requisite
level
● Bores running dry not delivering enough water
● Lots of water tankers being ordered within the community
● Lots of complaints from residents on WhatsApp group
● Water overflowing from the sumps in some villas due to resident’s
negligence
● Water leaks left unattended by staff for days leading to water loss
● Lack of water and sewage infrastructure diagrams for reference

12. Solution - Infrastructure,
Process● Physical Infrastructure
○ Sewage Treatment Plant (STP)
○ Rain Water Harvesting pits (RWH)
○ Inline pressure pumps
○ Float valves for sumps
○ Calibration of valves with flow meter
● Process
○ Whatsapp group setup to manage water operations
○ Entire supervision of bore motors/overhead tank motors operation, flow meter readings
transparently posted on ops
○ Overflows of water posted with pictures by staff and actions taken
○ Water and sewage infrastructure diagrams with all details available for reference

15. Solution - Communication, Feedback
Loop
● Communication
○ Convey the entire set up, water lines and operations details for both bore and drinking water
○ Everyday updates on the residents Whatsapp group on water release start and end for
both water lines
● Feedback Loop
○ Adda Community tickets on water leak/overflow/supply issues
○ Adda Poll conducted and results correlated with villa layout/water lines to understand issues
of usage vs supply
○ Tracking number of tankers in peak summer to provide feedback on any additional
requirements of RWH pits

16. Impact
● Reference diagrams of water/sewage infrastructure reducing dependence on specific staff
● 14 recharge bores have resolved the issue of bore running dry (which leads to half filled sumps)
● Lesser number of tankers (as seen in the visitors log in Gatekeeper). Only 63 tankers in 3
summer months from Mar 24 to Jun 24, 2018.
● Complaints being handled with facts (flow meters) rather than excuses.
● Lesser complaints on the residents group (handful of complaints - some due to staff not following
protocol or providing right information)
● Better empowerment on reporting water loss to residents and visibility into the action taken
● Reasonably happy members with better filled individual sumps and tanks.
● Wholesome common areas garden maintenance with STP water