Fancy places like starred hotels have equally fancy roofs which are water proofed. They have roof gardens and roof swimming pools. I had not thought it would be possible for us. But our people managed a roof garden. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, it is the first of its kind in the world.
Monsoon and water leakages through the roofs and walls go together in this city, from the best places to the worst, more so in the case of the latter. Water proofing is an expensive method of dealing with the problem, and may not be possible for some, while it may be possible and be actually done too in civic and government institutes (but may not work due to certain reasons often alleged in the media or any other reasons unknown to me). A faster and more economic alternative is to cover the said area with tarpaulin, for the duration the monsoon. That is what they did for one of the buildings in campus. It would be impossible for an individual to spend that kind of money for such a large area, but the civic body is flush with money, I guess.
As the monsoon progressed, there grew a garden on top of the tarpaulin roof. It must have grown in dust which had got there during a dry spell by air currents blowing it up from the ground. It is bordering on a miracle that shrubs grew in just dust collected there. I have no idea if the roots penetrated tarpaulin and went down, through which water might have leaked on the terrace below.
In the meantime, it is heard that they are not interested in getting the name of the institute in the book of world records for being the first to have a tarpaulin roof garden.
Monsoon and water leakages through the roofs and walls go together in this city, from the best places to the worst, more so in the case of the latter. Water proofing is an expensive method of dealing with the problem, and may not be possible for some, while it may be possible and be actually done too in civic and government institutes (but may not work due to certain reasons often alleged in the media or any other reasons unknown to me). A faster and more economic alternative is to cover the said area with tarpaulin, for the duration the monsoon. That is what they did for one of the buildings in campus. It would be impossible for an individual to spend that kind of money for such a large area, but the civic body is flush with money, I guess.
As the monsoon progressed, there grew a garden on top of the tarpaulin roof. It must have grown in dust which had got there during a dry spell by air currents blowing it up from the ground. It is bordering on a miracle that shrubs grew in just dust collected there. I have no idea if the roots penetrated tarpaulin and went down, through which water might have leaked on the terrace below.
In the meantime, it is heard that they are not interested in getting the name of the institute in the book of world records for being the first to have a tarpaulin roof garden.
