RAINWATER HARVESTING
THE FUNDAMENTAL DUTY OF EVERY CITIZEN

Our city like the rest of our State, is experiencing severe water storage. Theoretically, this should not be the case since our region receives generous rainfall during the monsoons and intermittently, through the year. Therefore, there should be no reason for us to suffer in this manner.

The focus of the government has been at strengthening irrigation (for rural Tamil Nadu) and augmenting drinking water supply programme (for urban Tamil Nadu). Without doubt, much of our state has benefited from these programmes.

However, the gap between demand and supply of water has been increasing - and the state allowed unhindered extraction of groundwater to bridge the gap. The traditional response by a resident who does not get water at a certain depth, is to sink his borewell / tubewell deeper. But this cannot go on forever because water tables have been fallin on one hand and where it is not falling in terms of quantity, it has been deteriorating in terms of quality. This is true especially in Chennai and other coastal areas of the state, where the phenomenon of sea water intrusion is all too familiar.

Evidently, for a State dependent on groundwater this has been a sustainable option. The response of the government at the stage was to bring in ground water extraction regulation [ Chennai Metropolitan Area Groundwater (Regulation) Act, 1987 ] - which is very difficult to enforce, considering groundwater extraction is almost entirely in the private sphere. Unfortunately, steps to maintain the integrity of the water system - i.e., by not just regulating extraction, but also requiring groundwater recharge - where not implemented.

At the same time, rapid unbanisation has seen the reduction in open spaces and recreational areas and the shrinking tree cover due to improper maintenance and faulty town planning Incidents of land filling of waterlands like Pallikaranai andAdyar creek in South Chennai, where precious groundwater recharge areas were taken away for developmental needs, resulted in environmental degradation. This is turn affected the water table and before you know it, Chennai and several other places in the State are reeling under acute water shortage, with no permanent solution in sight.

WHAT WE NEED TO DO ?

But there is a solution. A simple answer to this problem is to capture and store the large quantities of rain water that we receive - either during the monsoons or through the short intermittent speels - as surface water or groundwater. What we do with much of our rain water today is terrible - either let it run - off into the sea (through a myriad combination of sewers and storm water drains) or allow it flood low - lying areas.

What we should be doing is harvesting the rain water - either by diverting it into existing water recharge areas like tanks (including templs tanks), ponds and lakes (Surface water) or by ingesting it into soil (groundwater), And this is a task that should be carried out by the government and by every resident, every household and every community.

In a speech made in 1998, the Honourable President of India, Mr. K.R. Narayanan lauded the efforts made in Chennai when he said that "Urban development rules should encourage all houses to have their own water harvesting system. It is encouraging that Chennai has taken a lead in this and several builders and architects are beginning to recognise the need to do so. This kind of water harvesting can greatly help to recharge ground-water, keep the fresh water table up, and in coastal city like Chennai, keep the seawater out." (CSE Conference on Potential of Water Harvesting, New Delhi, 1998). The Honourable President also refers to the requirement by the Metro Water Board that mandates all premises of good.