A physics teacher in Gandarvakottai in Pudukottai has attached whistles to household drinking water lines on his street to alert residents to the supply of water to their residences. Since air would flow through the pipe before water was pumped through it, the whistles make a sound, informing the residents of the water supply.
R. Balamurugan, a physics teacher at Vidhyaa Vikas International School in Gandarvakottai, has been devising innovative ways to be informed of the water supply. Gandarvakottai receives water from the Cauvery Combined Drinking Water Supply Scheme and there are no fixed timings for the supply. “Some days it comes tt comes during the day and on other days late into the night. Since the supply is on a rotational basis across Gandarvakottai, the timing is not fixed,” he said.
The residents in Mr. Balamurugan’s locality would have to take turns staying up through the night to wait for water, after which they would fill pots and tanks and then go back to bed. “Many of us work in the day, so staying up through the night was very difficult,” he said.
To tackle the issue, Mr. Balamurugan first tied a balloon to the water outlet pipe. “When the air passed through the pipe,the balloon would fill up and burst, alerting me or my wife,” he said. However, many a times the balloon would slip away from the opening or the burst would not be loud enough to be heard.
Mr. Balamurugan then fashioned a device by attaching a plastic whistle to pipe through a hole. The whistle was fixed using a sealant in such a way that air passes through it. “Now, the whistle blows before the water flows and the residents are all awakened by its sound,” he said.
After the success of his device, neighbours on his street too approached him to make it for them. “There is a need for such a device in the market as many cannot afford to construct large tanks with stoppers and must fill water in pots,” he said. He is willing to share the expertise to any manufacturer who would come forward to make the device.
