With the Northeast monsoon playing hide and seek this year, residents of Shastri Nagar, Adyar, have begun to take rainwater harvesting seriously.
They have requested the Chennai Corporation to construct RWH structures for them so that whatever rains come their way could be saved.
This move is supported by Kamakshi Subramaniam and Dr. T. D. Babu of ‘SPARK’, a civic activists' group, Sekar Raghavan of the Rain Centre, and Geetha Padmanabhan of Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar Residents’ Welfare Association, Thiruvanmiyur.
“The rainwater harvesting structures would be commissioned across Shastri Nagar. We have identified areas prone to water stagnation to set up these structures. During the monsoon, RWH helps recharge the groundwater table and improve the quality of water,” T. D. Babu said.
“The RWH project has been successfully implemented at First and Sixth Avenue, Besant Nagar,” residents said.
T.D. Babu said that as RWH structures enabled percolation of rainwater, they have to be commissioned across the city.
In RWH structures, the chambers play a pivotal role as they act as a settlement tank and arrest the silt from getting into the water pipe.
The water and silt enter the chamber simultaneously. When the water overflows, the water enters the pipe, resulting in arrest of slit. The system requires annual maintenance.