Sekhar Raghavan’s story begins within the Nineteen Nineties as a resident of Besant Nagar, Chennai. As builders paved driveways and compounds on this neighbourhood near the seashore, Sekhar observed that the extent of water within the shallow wells fell and have become brackish. Even borewells have been starting to run dry. 

As a resident of the realm for the reason that 70s, Sekhar had valued easy accessibility to prime quality consuming water. His 6-apartment complicated had its personal shallow properly and water percolated simply by means of the sandy soils, at all times staying simply a few ft beneath the floor in the course of the monsoons.  

With the advantage of commentary and examine, he was satisfied that the change in water was because of the many new infrastructural developments which, in impact, sealed the soils. This made the water keep on the floor earlier than evaporating or reaching the ocean. 

The issue, in his view, might be addressed by harvesting rainwater domestically, replenishing the aquifers that are each excessive up — utilizing the soil’s water-holding capability — and likewise deeper down within the rock crevices and caverns.

To herald extra public help, he started a door-to-door marketing campaign in 1995 to persuade the locals and the municipality that rainwater harvesting was important. He promoted recharging the dear groundwater aquifers quite than solely utilizing concrete tanks to retailer rainwater as a result of with out replenishing them, they grew to become susceptible to seawater intrusion which might be deadly to these water shops.

He argued for rising the permeability of strong surfaces — permitting water to percolate into the soil round new and previous developments — supplying shallow wells, and enabling deeper aquifer recharge with rainwater to help borewell extraction. 

“That is how water was managed till the mid-Nineteenth century when Chennai largely relied on groundwater sourced by means of shallow wells,” Sekhar says.

An extended street forward

At first, Sekhar’s concepts fell on deaf ears. When he tried to speak to residents, the safety guards turned him away. Curiously although, they appeared to have a greater understanding of the issue than their employers. 

The higher-off city inhabitants didn’t make the connection between rainwater percolation and groundwater, nor did they recognise the severity of the state of affairs. In any occasion, they noticed it because the Authorities’s obligation to produce them with water.

Nevertheless, in 1998, he had a breakthrough – after 3 years of drought was Chennai’s ‘Floor Zero’ (when some went with out water for days). The editor of the Adyar Occasions gave him area to put in writing an article and embrace his telephone quantity. 

He started to obtain questions from residents within the Adyar-Mylapore area in search of steering on implementing rainwater harvesting measures.

His efforts bought impetus in 1994, when the then chief minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa, instructed the Chennai Metropolitan Growth Authority to problem a notification that required builders to point out what provisions have been being made for rainwater harvesting earlier than planning a brand new constructing.

The notification elevated consciousness of water conservation wants. Nevertheless, in line with Sekhar, hardly any builders built-in satisfactory schemes. Enforcement was troublesome. Nevertheless, one of many few builders who did take discover helped develop a recharge properly strategy for replenishing aquifers. 

This concerned diverting water from rooftops by means of pipes after which into the bottom by means of 15-foot-deep wells of a diameter of 5 ft.

Within the mild of restricted impacts, Jayalalithaa continued to be dedicated to motion, strengthening the foundations in 2002-03 which required each new and previous buildings to have recharge and rainwater harvesting methods compulsorily. This time, the brand new municipal requirement additionally said exactly what wanted to be accomplished – both divert rainwater into open wells or into the recharge wells. 

How the efforts solidified

Round this time, in 2002,  a US-based man named Ram Krishnan heard about Sekhar’s efforts and determined to again him. That’s how the Akash Ganga Belief was fashioned. Sekhar had been described as a lone crusader when interviewed by “All the way down to Earth” in 1998, however this was now to alter. 

He grew to become the primary trustee of the Belief and the director of the ‘Rain Centre’ that was initially established in Santhome. Now in Adyar, it’s a demonstration of what will be accomplished. He was happy to have the worth of the brand new centre recognised with the inauguration being attended by Jayalalithaa herself.

Sekhar provides that the outcomes of the brand new municipal necessities quickly grew to become obvious. After a great monsoon in 2005, an Akash Ganga survey discovered that groundwater ranges went up by 20 ft. 

“My view is that rainwater harvesting shouldn’t be a bureaucratic or an educational train however a individuals’s train. That’s the reason the Akash Rainwater Belief runs the rain centre so everybody can be taught what will be accomplished,” says Sekhar.

Drawing on town’s heritage

Nevertheless, persevering with water stress demanded extra in depth measures. To enlarge the outcomes, supporting different cities was additionally changing into a should.

In 2018, the Metropolis of 1,000 Tanks Consortium was fashioned, its title reflecting Chennai’s wealthy historical past of water administration. It aimed to pilot and doubtlessly scale methods this time, not just for harvesting rainwater, but additionally for recycling wastewater from sewage methods and purifying black & gray water utilizing “nature-based options”. 

How did the Metropolis of 1,000 Tanks come about? 

Sudheendra, an architect from Madras Terrace Architects, a agency targeted on eco-friendly structure and executing city water tasks which performed a key position in bringing about these modifications, explains. 

Following a worldwide initiative – Water as Leverage (WaL) for local weather resilient cities by Henk Ovink, Particular Envoy for Worldwide Water Affairs, Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Administration, a contest was introduced for pilots in 3 cities in 2017. 

Chennai, Khulna in Bangladesh and Semarang in Indonesia have been recognized pretty much as good cities to develop a mannequin to resolve the world’s urgent demand for water. A agency from the Netherlands, Ooze Architects, noticed the potential to scale up motion in Chennai. 

They knew concerning the metropolis and had labored with Shilesh Hariharan from the identical agency as Sudheendra. They teamed up with a collective of architects and urbanists from the Netherlands & India, referred to as it Metropolis of 1,000 Tanks, and developed an progressive proposal to revive the historic 1000’s of tanks which have been initially current in and round Chennai. 

The varied multi-disciplinary workforce included city designers, architects, engineers, in addition to ecologists, coverage researchers, engagement consultants, and cultural and tutorial establishments from OOZE Architects & Urbanists, Madras Terrace Architects, IIT Madras, Care Earth Belief, Eco Village Worldwide, Functionality Panorama, IRCDUC, Urayugal Social Welfare Belief, Rain Heart, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Chennai, Chennai Resilience Centre, Paperman Basis.

The workforce developed a technique and a set of tasks that supplied a holistic answer to the issues of water shortage, floods and sanitation, figuring out the inter-relationship with the present manner of planning or constructing cities. 

They performed a number of workshops and conferences working with WaL and the Authorities of Chennai.

The underlying message was that if all of the rainwater that falls on Chennai is captured then there will likely be enough water, actually greater than is required, to finish shortage. Nevertheless, as 80% of the rain falls in round October-December in about 20 days, capturing it quite than flooding town or squandering it to the ocean is troublesome. 

Because of this engagement, many authorities officers grew to become conscious of the necessity for a greater water administration system. Now, 50+ water our bodies in and round Chennai have since been restored by the Higher Chennai Company, Public Works Division and plenty of different NGOs, some with funds collected from Company Social Accountability budgets.

Recycling Water – Nature-based Options

The second answer that the Metropolis of 1,000 Tanks advocated is extra radical but additionally part of Chennai’s heritage. That is higher administration of sewage wastewater, treating it in a decentralised method utilizing nature-based options as an alternative of sending it out into the ocean. 

Banana and Canna are glorious examples of crops which perform the therapy, making certain the water can subsequently safely be allowed to infiltrate into the bottom.

Recognising the potential, a pilot undertaking was launched, funded largely by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Administration and contributions from the Goethe Institut, Max Mueller Bhavan Chennai and Wipro Basis. 

The scheme referred to as the Water Stability Pilot entails Little Flower Convent Faculty for the Blind & Deaf. The workforce discovered that the campus of the college had three principal water points: sewage overflow, floods throughout monsoons, and drought throughout summer season months. 

They got here up with a holistic strategy.

Earlier than sending the waste water to the crops, a settler (or a septic tank) permits all sludge to build up for about 24 hours after which an anaerobic digestion system is used to deal with the sewage out of which, a secondary handled kind of water arises. It’s wealthy in vitamins – particularly nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium which crops love and take up to develop. 

That is the place the primary component of the brand new type of wastewater therapy, referred to as constructed wetlands, come into play. These wetlands, albeit constructed, mimic pure wetlands akin to marshlands that are important for retention, purification and infiltration of runoff floor water. 

Equally the handled water from these constructed wetlands is infiltrated within the floor within the neighbourhood which finally finds its manner again into the aquifer. 

The outcomes of the pilot programme have been revealed in July 2023 and have been encouraging with the water high quality being good, higher than the usual required for discharging it into the backyard.This type of therapy (high quality of water let into the bottom) entails water discovering its manner down by means of the layers of sand which implies that the pure micro organism obtainable within the soil cleanse the water and restore it earlier than the water enters the native aquifer and thus the recharge is full. 

This varieties a closed loop system and subsequently allows self-sustaining communities when it comes to water to start out thriving. That is the premise for the way forward for water.

“The Water Stability undertaking exhibits what WaL is all about, a game-changer strategy; people-centred and community-led fixing the world’s most urgent water challenges. The pioneer undertaking in Chennai proves the worth of community-led, nature-based options’ by design, that may paved the way forward for upscaling and replicating – spreading from town and the Ganga basin to the world. We will even put the UN Water Motion Agenda into follow,” says Henk Ovink, first particular envoy for Worldwide Water Affairs of the Netherlands.

“We’ve seen erratic unseasonal rainfalls, typically in extra of 100mm in a number of hours and a number of occasions in a yr. Individuals are starting to expertise the truth of local weather change and the notice of the necessity for higher water administration is excessive. Now’s the precise time for individuals who personal or handle land to put money into water initiatives to make sure large-scale storage enough to make sure the well-being of residents of town,” says Sudheendra.

Classes for the individuals and policy-makers

Sudheendra feedback that in his view, the unique authorized modifications introduced by Jayalalithaa’s authorities have been impactful. 

“Although it was troublesome to implement this technique in particular person homes, all constructions (residential, industrial or instructional) constructed after this date have rainwater harvesting methods to some extent. A few of those that believed within the strategy put in rainwater harvesting systematically with underground sumps which retailer giant quantities of rainwater. This may be seen in Ramakrishna Mutt and Vivekananda Establishment in Mylapore which proudly show the system,” he says. 

Sudheeendra says that right this moment rainwater harvesting is regarded in Chennai as a primary inexperienced measure. Many newspapers have written concerning the success in surmounting each the water scarcity and addressing flooding challenges by means of this widespread follow. 

He credit Sekhar for the position he performed and values his bore log of the rainwater harvesting methods he has suggested for, applied or been part of, offering information that exhibits a bounce within the water desk seemingly associated to rainwater harvesting methods.

These tales present what will be achieved on one’s personal and likewise as a collective. The outcomes are technological approaches in addition to societal engagement strategies which have the potential to be extensively used notably if backed by coverage at a metropolis or different degree.

Each Raghavan and Sudheendra are of the view that with some coverage nudges, these inexpensive optimistic actions will be mainstreamed. Challenges stay; for instance, wastewater therapy by industries is already a authorized requirement, however permitting handled water for use to recharge the aquifers isn’t regular. 

Nevertheless, as Sudheendra says, good coverage by itself is not going to create change. Rules want each enforcement and buy-in. Architects, builders and the peculiar family should recognise the advantage of rising entry to native water provides. Securing water provide for a “dry day” as one may say is significant. As these dry days grow to be ever extra frequent, with the intense climate ensuing from local weather change, holistic native motion is crucial.

Written by Maya De Souza and Edited by Padmashree Pande