Five months ago, the Kalakshetra Colony Welfare Association (KCWA) initiated an exercise that would require members of its executive committee to conduct a door-to-door awareness campaign about rainwater conservation. “We advise our residents to have rainwater harvesting (RWH) wells on their premises, in addition to an RWH facility, which is mandatory. Doing so will ensure that rainwater runoffs are harvested, and prevented from flooding the roads. Many residents have been receptive to this campaign and many of them have established RWH wells on their compounds,” says Sridhar Rao Chaganti, an executive committe member. This campaign will be carried out during weekends.
“In 2003, the Tamil Nadu government issued a landmark ordinance on rainwater harvesting in Tamil Nadu. The government’s order mandated that all buildings — both existing and to-be constructed — in Tamil Nadu have rainwater harvesting structures. However, there were shortcomings in this mandate — it only considered the rainwater that fell on terraces and not the water that fell in open compounds. It also did not say anything about the water that fell on the roads. However, Kalakshetra Colony realised this and went beyond the government mandate. KCWA took it upon itself and created RWH recharge wells alongside the colony roads. After creating a few wells in 2003-04, Kalakshetra Colony now has 75 RWH recharge wells alongside the roads of the colony. We did this with the support of Rain Centre, a city-based organisation which advocates conservation of rainwater,” says Sridhar Rao Chaganti.
Those who would want to see rainwater harvesting facilities set up by the KCWA may call Sridhar Rao Chaganti at 98400 33448 or Sheila Mohan at 92821 14661.
