In 2002, when a group of like-minded individuals came together to start the Akash Ganga Trust with a vision to spread ‘water literacy’, very few believed they would be successful. But little did the detractors know that along with the support of the State government, the Rain Centre, started by the trust, would usher in a new era of water conservation that has now provided rich dividends to the city.
On Monday, the centre, which was inaugurated by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, completed 10 years.
The attendance of some of the most famous minds in the country for the event marking the decade-long existence bore testimony to the pioneering efforts that the centre had undertaken to spread the message of rain water harvesting.
M S Swaminathan, the agriculture scientist, who was instrumental in getting the Chief Minister attend the inaugural in 2002, recalled what she had said when he met her with the proposal, indicated the importance she attached with rain harvesting. “I told her it is a very small place and would only be a small event. But she quickly replied talking about the importance of the centre and that she would surely come and inaugurate the it,” he recalled.
Not only did the Chief Minister open the centre, she followed it up with a policy decision that is now hailed as one of the most ingenious ever. Shanta Sheela Nair, vice chairperson of the State Planning Commission, said that the idea of rain harvesting was novel, it could have never achieved this success without political will backing it.
Rather than being just a drought-mitigating effort, she said rain water harvesting helped in reducing the severity of floods as well. “At the Chennai Metro Water Board, we identified 400 low-lying points in the city and realised that they are highly conducive for water harvesting. The results, after installation of such systems, were extremely positive,” she said and added that the design of storm-water drains, developed by the Rain Centre, could be adopted as they do the dual work of helping ground water recharge as well as expanding the capacity if the drains themselves.
Sekhar Raghavan, whose brain child the centre was, said that the organisation was now focusing on taking affordable sanitation facilities to the poor apart from being a resource centre for clarifying doubts on rain water harvesting.
Comments
0 comment