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

Dates: November 09 - 12, 2022
Venue: Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute (AAETI), Nimli, Rajasthan
Course Type: Residential

Background

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 November 09, to 12, 2022. 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.

Atotal of 22 participants attended the training, which comprised young,mid-career and experienced professionals from different expertise. Majorlythere were government officials from Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and UttarPradesh Jal Nigam (UPJN) architects, and engineers by profession. In theprivate sector, the participants were architects, planners, geographer, lawyerand social scientists.

The training programme began with site visits of CSE campus and Jamia Hamdard on November 09, 2022 – 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 with room mapping and ice-breaking session with the participants, Mr Depinder Singh Kapur, Director, Water Programme, CSE, inaugurated the training programme by introducing CSE and School of Water & Waste. He 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.

This was followed by a session on Introduction to WSUDP, Principles and Concept by Mr Dhruv Pasricha, Deputy Programme Manager, CSE. Mr Pasricha talked about the scope and opportunities for application of WSUDP at different scales and landuses in Indian context and supported the same by showcasing various case examples from India.The session concluded with brainstorming exercise and discussions on applicability of WSUDP concept in Indian scenario. This was followed by a session on Data Requirement for Planning and Designing WSUDP Interventions conducted by Shivani, Senior Research Associate, CSE. She talked about the various datasets required to design RWH and SUDS systems at various scales and the sources of these datasets.The session was supported 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.Moving ahead, a session on ‘Planning and Designing for Rainwater Harvesting at Individual Scale’ 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.Day 1 was concluded with the AAETI Campus tour conducted by Dhruv Pasricha, 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. Following this a detailed session on ‘Planning and designing of SUDS features and stormwater harvesting interventions for parks’ was taken by Ms Shivani. Following the same line, Mayank Mishra, Principal Architect, 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. Mr Mishra supported the participants in the exercise and group presentations. In the second half of the day, Ms Shreya Krishnan, Principal Architect & Founder, Shreya Krishnan Design Office (SKDO) delivered a session on ‘Planning for Water-Sensitive City: Case of Chennai& Kochi’. Her session was supported with a group exercise on role of responsibilities of various stakeholders in planning WSUDP interventions at an institutional scale. 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. She also talked about net present value and payback period, which are vital factors for economic feasibility assessment of WSUDP interventions.

Following the detailed discussions on operation and maintenance, 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 were 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

Depinder Singh Kapur
Director,
Water Programme, CSE
Email: dkapur@cseindia.org