First of its kind theme park in the country

Aknisree Karthik

Bangalore: As the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewarage Board (BWSSB) has made it mandatory for all the existing buildings with an area of 40x60 along with a dimension of 2400 sq km to compulsorily implement the Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) within December 31, 2011, the people are left confused with what type of rain water harvesting to set up at their homes which suits best.

Don’t be confused. You have an answer and solution for all your queries at Sir M Visvweswaraya Rain Water Harvesting Theme Park here in the heart of the city at 40^th cross, 5^th block, Jayanagar. The theme is said to be first of its kind in the country which is built at a whooping cost of 3.5 crore.

All models of RWH are on display and there will be BWSSB junior engineers who will explain each model to you in a simpler way. The visitors will be showed a small documentary about the water essentials, uses of RWH, how do the people go ahead with installations and other things stretching up to half an hour creating awareness about saving water with heart touching audio visuals.

Once you are done with that, the junior engineers will be taking you around the theme park where 28 models of RWH are set up. The engineers will be explaining you the mechanisms by giving you a free book on RWH along with a leaflet and will be giving the approximate cost of each model and the technical details. One can select among those which he feels as it suits his home or apartment the best.

The theme park which was opened for the public on April 16, will be working from Monday to Saturday between 10 am- 5 pm. Entry is free for all only the schools must take prior appointments just to avoid overcrowding. Every visitor will be given a free book –Amruthavarshini, a guide of RWH written by A R SHivakumar, principal investigator at the Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology. 

The BWSSB has already invited all schools to bring their children to the theme park to derive the practical experiences regarding RWH. Already the BWSSB officials has got the list of schools from their officials who take the reading and has divided the schools according to their respective constituency and has already written letters inviting about 63 schools under Jayanagar constituency. All the schools need to do is to select the standards of children, take a prior appointment at the theme park by telling them the number of students whom they are about to take to the park and fix a schedule. The junior engineers will divide the number of students and take them in batches around the theme park.

 “The impact of this theme park is huge among the children especially the high school ones. Even many NGOs have visited the site. Some set of foreigners too had come here and opined that they had not seen such theme parks run by a water body like BWSSB in their countries. Once we play the video, the people get a general idea and as we take them along the park explaining the various models they get a clear picture and importance about the whole concept” said Rekha, junior engineer who took us through the theme park explaining things.

We were able to see the students keenly observing the audio-visual media at the mini theatre and cleared all their doubts by asking for clarification from the engineers.

What more the theme park is enough spacious and will surely relieve you from some routine stress. All the installation works are running at a rapid pace to set up the water themes which will be eye catchy.

The theme park has an open auditorium too where street plays, dramas and other useful activities can be done.

Also the theme park provides technical assistance on every Fridays between 11 am to 1 pm where experts will be attending to your queries and will be giving you possible solutions with their immense knowledge. IT giant like Wipro, Commando Hospital, apartment owners, NGOs, engineers and other builders have already taken the expert opinion.

Do you wish to increase your water table? Do you wish to rejuvenate the ground water levels? Do you wish to give life to your dead bore wells?, Then you can attend the Friday workshop and derive the maximum benefits out of it.

What after getting the expert opinion and how to go ahead with the RWH installations?

Simple. Just login to the BWSSB website. You will get the numbers of the plumbers in your area who are exclusively trained by the BWSSB to set up the RWH. Call them, fix an appointment and you are done.

Also people can contact the help desk at 080-26653666 to get their queries answered.