HydroLoop: Reclaiming Water Security by Circular Systems

Onkar Anandita Amod

UR3013

Communities living in Vanjaravas face extreme challenges like contaminated water supply, unreliable access to water, and irregular supply timings. This inadequacy, coupled with short supply timings and poor water pressure, has led to decreased water availability and no water security. Additionally, the community faces seasonal waterlogging in the monsoons. Most waterlogged areas take 2-3 days to recover, during which the residents are stuck inside their homes, many of which also flood.
The project aims to establish circular water management systems to ensure complete water security across Vanjaravas.
The aim is to harvest maximum rainwater, stormwater, and discarded water by diverting it into a series of recharge wells to rejuvenate the aquifers. These wells can be constructed in common open spaces.
Along with rainwater harvesting, greywater generated from outdoor chowkdi’s is collected and filtered through planted infiltration strips. The community can use the treated water for non-potable uses like cleaning floors, washing clothes and vehicles, and irrigation from plants.
Together, these systems work in tandem to mitigate the flood-drought situation that threatens the community year after year.
Towards the end of the design, a manual (toolkit) has been developed, which consists of all elements that together form this envisioned circular water system, showcasing this system’s potential to be replicated across spaces and clusters of various scales and contexts like informal settlements, gated communities and private residences.

View Additional Work

Report Content

Site Introduction

Proposed Strategic Framework for Water Systems on Site

Project Brief

Large Scale Design Intervention

Medium Scale Design Intervention

Small Scale Design Intervention

The crux of the design proposal at Vanjaravaas has been condensed into a modular design manual, envisioning a system that can be replicated in a diverse range of contexts - From Informal Settlements to Institutes and High Income Housing

ROOH Challenge Entry: Paradeep, a coastal city in Odisha, India, faces frequent challenges due to its vulnerability to floods and cyclones in the area. The informal settlements in Lokpada are particularly at risk, with residents often forced to relocate during the monsoon season due to floods. The design delivers a transformative solution for informal dwellings - an incremental floating device — that addresses these challenges by retrofitting a dwelling in Paradeep. This approach ensures the family living there has a safe and resilient home. The approach is also incremental and additive. The solution masterfully integrates traditional construction techniques with a sharp focus on resilience, embodying lightness, strength and adaptability.

The proposal includes incremental planning for implementation so that each household can execute the proposal in parts as and when they gather the funds for it. Multiple phases of the incremental plan can be constructed together.

At an urban scale, interventions will help in reducing the severity of damages caused by flooding and improving the water quality in the long run.