Tamil Nadu government is rated one among the best states in the country in rainwater harvesting
Chennai: With Chennai in the grip of water crisis and ground water table steadily depleting due to consecutive drought years, the focus is on harvesting every drop of rainwater. Though Tamil Nadu government is rated one among the best states in the country in rainwater harvesting, the fresh recommendations made by the Rain Centre, a NGO which conducted the audit on rainwater harvesting, says the TN can achieve better results by making certain policy changes.
The NGO has finished the third party audit, which was assigned to it by Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and submitted the report to ministry of urban development for approval. Some of the recommendations made are replacing the current recharge pits with recharge wells, which are easy to maintain, tap driveway run-off rainwater and have a third party monitoring for evaluating the structures, CMDA sources told Deccan Chronicle.
When contacted, the chief of Rain Centre, Dr Sekhar Raghavan, who is also fondly referred to as ‘Rain Man’, said he can’t reveal the details of the audit report, but acknowledged that the government should overhaul its system to make best use of the rainwater.
“Based on our past experiences, we found that recharge pits become defunct within two years. The government should try to make recharge wells compulsory. For instance, a recharge pit, which is 20 feet deep with a diameter of 6 inches will filled with silt and nobody can do anything after that. However, the recharge well, which will be 15 feet deep with diameter of 3 feet can be easily maintained. A person can go inside the well and remove the silt deposits,” he said.
He said shallow aquifers in the city have depleted to dangerous levels. A test in West Mambalam revealed that the ground water table has dropped to 26 feet, whereas the maximum deep was 30 ft which means only 4 feet of water is left. “No doubt, Tamil Nadu is a pioneer in rainwater harvesting, but we can improve. People of Chennai should remember the less rainfall the more effectively we should find means to tap rain water”.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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