New Rainwater Tank to add to Woodstock's water reserve

Water shortage has been a rising challenge around the country, and Mussoorie has been no exception. The past summer was especially dry around town, and the Woodstock community toiled through a challenging few months as well. During one of the past Board Meetings the plan for a new Rainwater Harvesting Tank was conceived to add to Woodstock's water reserve. The project to build this tank began four months ago, and on Wednesday, November 18th, the tank was finally unveiled for use below the Midlands Dormitory.

The tank, which is approximately the area of a badminton court and is around 16 feet deep, can store around five lakh (500,000) litres of water . It is the biggest water reservoir in the school - the older water tank above it has a capacity of a little over 1.5lakh (150,000) litres of water. The rainwater that will be collected during the monsoon season from the roof of Midlands will be channeled down through pipes to a filter chamber (filled with stones, bricks, gravel, and charcoal for the filtration process) and then down to the tank. A water pumping system has been designed next to this tank to send water up to the main distribution tank above, which can then pump water across the Woodstock campus.

The tank will serve to provide water for fire-fighting as well as being a backup reservoir for Woodstock. In the case of an emergency it can provide all of the campus with water for two and a half days.

Principal Dr. David Laurenson, Finance Director Ben Lall, Development Director Stephen Alter, Estate Manager Arun Bansal, and the team of builders and engineers behind this new project were present for the inauguration ceremony of the tank.