ROKArnival

In August 2019, Residents of Kasturbanagar Association (ROKA) was formally introduced to the residents. 

To mark the occasion, a carnival was conducted at the Kasturbanagar replete with a skit by children, expert talks, swap sale and stalls selling eco/organic products.

ROKA believes that humans have brought upon themselves many natural disasters (past, present and future). Issues to tackle pollution of land, air and water, and drought, need to be addressed at the earliest. Kasturbanagar was, in 2019, reeling in a drought like situation with many apartments buying water tankers to supplement their requirements. ROKArnival was, therefore, designed to create awareness about individual involvement.

• Skit and other activities involving children - The children of Kasturbanagar came together to perform a skit to create awareness on various environmental issues. other events like poster making and speech were also conducted for them on the theme of environment.

• Expert talk - Experts in the field of rainwater harvesting and composting graciously enlightened the audience about simple techniques, which when implemented at home, can usher in multifold benefits.

  • Rain Centre - Dr. Sekar Raghavan (Director - Rain Centre, Gandhi Nagar), spoke about simple rainwater harvesting techniques that can be implemented at homes to collect run-off rainwater and replenish ground water sources. He recommended:
    (a) for homes/apartments - open wells, proper/well maintained rainwater harvesting systems and gate gutters to catch all the rainfall possible;
    (b) for roads and public places - recharge wells. Post this, he also offered free consultation to the residents of Kasturba Nagar on customised RWH needs for the apartments. An outcome of this was that Kasturba Nagar installed four recharge wells in the locality between October to December, 2019.

  • Composting - Dr. Sultan Ahmed Ismail spoke passionately about the need for composting and various composting method. He also spoke one of the methods - vermi-composting, and how small houses too can implement it. He also gave tips on plant care and homemade pesticides and fertilizers.

• Stalls - Various stalls selling organic products and sustainable sanitary ware were also part of ROKArnival. A book swap event was also conducted.

GCC officials also participated in the event which saw a participation of 125 people.