Vodafone conserves rainwater through billboards

To help farmers and people to cope better with constant water crisis in Maharashtra, Vodafone’s Maharashtra and Goa circle has decided to use their bill boards as means to harvest rain water. Calling them “Rain Water Conservation Billboards, 5 units have already been installed at new Airport Road, Pune and 20,000 litres of water from the initiative has been donated to the aid the parched farmers of Wadebolai Village (Bolai Mata Temple).  
 
Vodafone as a brand has always been active in Out of Home Advertising (OOH), and has been the one to set benchmarks in terms of creating landmark Out of Home (OOH) media properties, creating visibility and stature through the medium.  Making the most of this medium, Vodafone in Maharashtra & Goa circle have created a simple yet effective mechanism on the billboards. Rain water is harvested using these billboards by creating a U-curved aluminum sheet as a rain water collection funnel on top of the billboards. This funnel is then channeled through a tube to a big tank installed at the bottom of each hoarding, which stores the collected rain water.  In order to keep a check on the water level in the tank, each tank has been installed with a unique Vodafone sim card based water sensor technology. Once the tanks are full, an SMS is automatically sent out to the administration.  The water collected in the tanks are then transferred to water tankers and taken to the farmers.
 
5 such innovative rain water harvesting billboards have been installed in Pune at the New Airport Road. With 5 billboards, there are 5 tanks attached each with a capacity of 2000 liters. The collected water is donated then to Wadebolai Village (Bolai Mata Temple). About 20,000 litres of water have been donated till date owing to the innovative activity which began on July 21st, 2016.
 
Speaking about this innovation, Ashish Chandra, Business Head, Maharashtra and Goa, Vodafone India, said “The state of Maharashtra has been dealing with water shortage for a few years now. In the current scenario, every single drop of water is extremely precious. Rainwater, if harvested properly, can meet a large part of our requirements. By means of this initiative, we aim to do our bit in conserving this precious resource and help the farmers in the areas facing water crisis.
 
Vodafone India as an organization believes that environmental sustainability is critical for future survival and growth. It proactively works towards energy conservation and ensures its environmental initiatives preserve and enrich the planet