Advanced Residential Training Programme on Water Sensitive Urban Design and Planning (WSUDP) - Rainwater Harvesting at different scales

Dates: November 30 – December 02, 2021
Course Duration: Three days(24 hours)
Venue: Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute (AAETI), Nimli, Rajasthan
Course Type: Residential

CSE - School of Water and Waste (SWW) organised a 3-day advanced residential training programme on ‘Water Sensitive Urban Design and Planning (WSUDP) – Rainwater Harvesting at different scales’ from 30 Nov., to 2 Dec., 2021. The training was organized under the CSE-NMCG capacity building initiative for making Ganga-basin cities water-sensitive.

The training programme aimed at building a cohort of practitioners and managers (both government and private) who will design and implement WSUDP interventions. The advanced training progamme has been developed for participants who have previously attended CSE’s online course(s) on various themes of WSUDP.

Covid-19 Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been prepared by the admin dept. of CSE, taking into account all Covid-19 precautions and social distancing measures, which have been followed during the residential training at AAETI.

A total of 30 participants attended the training, which comprised of young, mid-career and experienced professionals from different expertise in both private and public sector. In the private sector, the participants were architects, landscape architects, planners, economist, civil engineers. Rest, were government officials from NMCG, DDA, SMCG Uttar Pradesh, Town and Country planning (TCPO) Bhopal, state of MP, architects, planners, environmental science specialist, and engineers.

The training programme began with site visits of CSE campus and JamiaHamdard on Nov., 29, 2021 – Day 0. Rainwater harvesting (RWH) system at CSE campus (building scale) was showcased by the CSE staff. The institutional scale RWH system at Jamia Hamdard was presented by Mr Azhar Ali Khan and his team, where they also shared the benefits of the system, as they have reduced the dependence of the overall supply on water tankers or groundwater.

Kick-starting Day 1, Dr Suresh Kumar Rohilla, Senior Director, CSE, inaugurated the training programme, and set the context for the 3-day advanced training, by highlighting the issues in urban water management and the indispensable need of integrated water cycle management with cost effective water sensitive design interventions in India. He also discussed the policy framework for mainstreaming WSUDP in urban centers of India, and the challenges and opportunities in the sector.

This was followed by an expert guest lecture on ‘River-sensitive planning framework’ Dr Victor Shinde, Lead – Water & Environment, NIUA Urban River Management Plan (URMP) framework that is adopted to rejuvenate water bodies, adapt nature-based solutions and improve biodiversity. Moreover, he concluded with the upcoming proposal of the URMP work to be implemented in Kanpur.

Following this ‘Urban Water Security Planning Toolkit’ was discussed by JigishaJaiswal, C-WAS, CEPT University. She highlighted the importance of a holistic city water balance plan that comprises of Revenue and Non-Revenue Water calculations, and other social benefits that one be mindful of. In continuation to the concept of water balance, Mr. P.Z. Thomas, MD, Environmental Engineers and Consultants Pvt. Ltd. (EECPL) shared invaluable insights from his own experiences on water balance at different scales. He talked about low impact development and the different assumptions that are made before estimating the water requirements for commercial and residential level projects. He also confronted water audit and water balance aspects of water conservation with some hands-on exercises on the same.

Sanjay Prakash, Principal, ShiFt Studios shared his experience in designing a water-sensitive campus in an arid area: IIT Jodhpur. He showcased the various water-sensitive features designed and implemented in the state-of-art campus which focus on rain/stormwater harvesting, and local reuse of treated wastewater. He discussed in detail the design parameters for swales, as implemented in the campus. The session was followed by a group exercise on hypothetical case study of designing of swales for the IIT Jodhpur campus. Abhinav Pandey, Studio Head, ShiFt Studies assisted Mr Prakash in the exercise and group presentations.

Day 1 was concluded with the AAETI Campus tour conducted by DhruvPasricha, CSE where he showcased the various water features at AAETI. He also discussed on the various design considerations and O&M of the water-sensitive features.

Day 2 began with a reflection session group exercise where participants discussed the various learnings from Day 1 and the site visits conducted on Day 0. This was followed by a session on Data Requirement for Planning and Designing WSUDP Interventions conducted by Shivani, CSE. She talked about the various datasets required to design RWH systems at various scales and the sources of these datasets.

This was followed by a session on ‘Benefit Cost Analysis (BCA) Tool’ by Mr Jamie Ewert, National Engagement Manager, CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, Australia. He showcased the importance of economic assessment, and calculations for CAPEX and OPEX costs. He also talked about net present value and payback period, which are vital factors when making an economic feasibility assessment of WSUDP interventions.

Following this, Tanmay Kumar, Project Manager, discussed the various nuances of permeable pavements, and their application in Indian cities. He discussed the advantages of using this feature and other performance enhances that can be used to make use of this sustainable intervention optimally. This was followed by a group exercise on ‘Data requirement for planning and designing WSUDP’ where participants were given a hypothetical case for data requirements for designing RWH system for a house, school, township and a hotel.

This was followed by a session on Planning and Designing WSUDP Interventions’ by Dhruv Pasricha, CSE. He discussed the various planning and design norms, strategies and thumb rules for various components of the RWH system incl. sizing of storage tanks and recharge pits. Planning and designing of SUDS features and stormwater harvesting interventions for parks was also discussed in detail during the session. Post this, Shivani, CSE presented on the O&M and economic feasibility of RWH systems and the various components of O&M schedules and stakeholder engagements.

An experience-sharing talk by one of the alumni, Natasha Zarine, EcoSattva Environmental Solutions Pvt. Ltd. was held, where she showcased her work on rejuvenation of the Kham River in Aurangabad. Following the experience-sharing talk, the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) exercise: Planning and Designing WSUDP at three different scales was introduced and the participants were given datasets for City ‘X’ for four different geographies. The participants were required to prepare a RWH and SUDS plan for their city and provide O&M strategies and roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders. The participants worked on the DIY for the remainder of the day and the evening.

Day 3 began with DIY presentations by each group with a maximum of seven minutes per group. The presentations were scored on the aspects of city profile, SUDS and RWH plan for three different scales, O&M schedule, stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities, presentation style and graphics. The winning group was presented with CSE goodies, followed by a short feedback session.

The training programme was concluded with a site visit to Nizamuddin East Colony in Delhi, where Vandana Menon. She showcased the RWH system implemented in the colony, sharing the journey of how the local residents funded, implemented and now maintain these systems to address issues of localized water-logging and depleting groundwater table. She discussed the various factors responsible for almost two decades of successful functioning of the RWH systems. She shared her experience on community engagement and role of various state and non-state actors in the implementation and replicability of the RWH systems implemented. The sessions was concluded with a vote of thanks.

Training Coordinator

Shivani 
Senior Research Associate
Urban Water Programme
Mobile: +91-8699770153
Email: shivani.y@cseindia.org

Training Director

Dr Suresh Kumar Rohilla
Senior Director, CSE
Academic Director, 
School of Water & Waste, AAETI
Email: srohilla@cseindia.org