Bengaluru, 27 March

Amid the water crisis in Bengaluru, Telugu film star Chiranjeevi Konidela has emphasised the need to build houses that help conserve water, and shared details of what he has done at his farm house in the City.

By taking these steps, he said one can conserve water and improve rainwater harvesting and build eco-friendly houses. ''As we all know, water is the most precious commodity, water scarcity makes daily life difficult. There may be a shortage of water in Bengaluru today. Tomorrow it can happen anywhere. So I want to use this opportunity to emphasise the need to build houses that help conserve water. Here I am sharing what I did for my farmhouse in Bengaluru,'' Konidela said in a post on 'X' on Tuesday.

Noting that recharge wells that are 20-36 feet deep are installed at strategic points throughout the farm site with sufficient slopes to direct surface water flow to the recharge wells, he said, ''each well has a filter system, a silt trap with different aggregates -- rock sizes and sand, to facilitate the passage of water through the layers.'' ''A recharge well – compared to a recharge pit – can store more water and allow water to flow more slowly through porous layers in the substrate to reach deeper aquifers,'' he added.

Further noting that he has also implemented ''permaculture principles'', the former Andhra Pradesh MP said Permaculture works on the circular principle of rejuvenating the environment, making it self-sustaining. ''A major outcome of permaculture is the reduction in water demand. This is achieved by mulching using dead leaves and wood chips along with a suitable ground cover using a garden that minimises evaporative loss from the soil,'' he said.