BHU’s South Campus becomes water ‘Atma Nirbhar’
VARANASI: Despite all odds, the Rajiv Gandhi South Campus of Banaras Hindu University, 70 km from Varanasi city and about 12 km on the outskirts of Mirzapur, the nearly 2,700-acre campus has become self-reliant for its water needs, probably the first and the only such campus in the country.
Located in Barkachha in Mirzapur, the campus has developed its own water management and supply system. It has also constructed rain water-harvesting structures to meet the water needs of agriculture and cattle.
There are nine check dams, two run-off water collection ponds and three wells on the campus to store rainwater.
Each check dam can hold up to 2 lakh litres of water.
The water from the check dams is used for irrigating fields on the campus which grow different crops.
Besides, there is one large farm pond having a water storage area 100 m x 100 m with an average depth of 3-4 m and two run-off water collection bandhi. These bandhi and ponds store water from July to December for irrigation.
To meet the daily needs of drinking water for the South Campus, surface water is pumped from Lower Khajuri dam in Barkachha. The dam is around 2.5 km from the campus for which the university has laid a pipeline, which pumps water into the filtration unit built on the campus. Filtered water is stored in two collection tanks of 5 lakh litre capacity each.
The wells are about 1-20 m deep with a diameter of 10 meters and contain water from July to May month. The water from the wells is used for developing the landscape and plantations on the campus.