5,000 litres, 2,000 bottles One solution

Prashant Lingam, a social entrepreneur from Hyderabad has developed a 5,500 litre water tank made out of pet water bottles and says it could be the solution to the water crisis in Chennai

Ironically, the help that is pouring into water marooned Chennai from all parts of the country by way of pet water bottles, which is in lakhs, is adding to the ecological disaster as these bottles are discarded instead of being recycled.

Prashant Lingam, social entrepreneur, Bamboo House India who is into the making of eco-friendly products, such as bamboo houses, furniture made out of lorry tyres and now water tanks made with pet water bottles, feels that they could be the solution to store water in Chennai.

According to rough estimates, about 50,000-one lakh pet bottles are supplied every day to the residents in Chennai but there is no arrangement for their disposal. Prashant says, “The water tank which can hold 5,500 litres is as sturdy as any plastic tank.”

The water tank was made by using 2,000 pet bottles at a cost of Rs 15,000. The bottles were procured from Bhoiguda scrapyard at Rs 1.25 per bottle. Ten women were employed to fill the bottles with sand and two masons and a labourer worked for five days to complete the tank.

Conscious effort was made not to use cement and in its place rock powder was used. “There is enough sand mining from river beds. We make sure that there is no harm to the environment,” says Prashant.

The water tank is not plastered from outside and all the bottle caps are visible. “If one wishes, one could plaster them but we wish to keep it that way,” says a worker at the manufacturing unit in Uppal. The length of the water tank is 16 ft; width and depth are 5 ft each.