Water conservation begins at home: an illustration from Zoho’s campus in Chennai

Four wells and a sprawling pond ensure the Guduvanchery campus of the company does not face a water crisis

The pond at the Estancia campus on November 20, 2023 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

In a post on X on November 20, 2023, Sridhar Vembu, chief executive officer of Zoho Corporation, tweeted about the water storage ponds on the company’s Guduvanchery campus; about how they “capture” and store rainwater. He also touched upon his “plan to swim in it soon” with an emoji.

With the temperature in the city shooting up, there should be more employees who would want to dive into this sprawling pond spread across 1.5 acres.

The Pond Project at the Estancia campus was initiated two years ago and the results were evident following last year’s November rains and later, Cyclone Michaung. In November, the water level stood at 13 feet.

“During cyclone Michaung, the water level in the pond rose to more than 18 feet. Owing to our mechanism, there was no water logging inside the campus,” says Praval Singh, vice-president, marketing and customer experience, Zoho Corp, responding to questions over email.

The campus is designed in such a way that all the water from the terraces and roads across the campus is diverted to underground storage tanks. Once these tanks are filled to the brim, the water is then stored in the pond. When the pond reaches its full capacity, the overflow is let out to the main stormwater drainage system.

The provision for outflow is kept at more than one meter above Grand Southern Trunk (GST) road’s level, the highway adjacent to the campus.

In addition to the pond, the campus also has four wells and one borewell. The stored water is used for fire hydrants and domestic use after RO treatment. “We house thousands of employees at the Estancia campus, and the stored water can fulfil our domestic requirement for three to four days. So, if there are 25 days of rain in a year, a maximum of 100 days of water for domestic use can come from the stored water.

For the rest of the domestic use, we use both well and borewell water. We use treated sewage water for chillers and flushing the water closet,” says Praval.

Zoho believes that rainwater management should be incorporated into infrastructure planning and design to prevent wastage. This will also replenish the groundwater table. “By doing this, we believe the neighbourhood will not get flooded with the water that falls within the campus during rains. And in very extreme situations, the impact of excess rain can be curtailed,” Praval adds.