Chennai city has one of the biggest challenges of water management, with a history of repeated droughts. The rainfall occurs in short spells of a few days, and there are demands to conserve and store this water. Even if 60% of the total rainfall can be harvested, 1.6 lakh litres of water per year can be harvested in a house of 2,400 sq.ft. This highlights the need to implement measures to ensure that the rain falling over a region is tapped as much as possible through appropriate water harvesting techniques, for recharging the ground water aquifers as well as for direct storage and use of rain water.
As part of Water Conservation Measures, the Chennai water board introduced the Ground Water Regulation Act, construction of check dams, leak detection and rectification works and rainwater harvesting - which resulted in a phenomenal increase in ground water table. Considering the importance of rain water harvesting, the board constituted a fully dedicated "Rainwater Harvesting Cell" with an objective of creating awareness and technical assistance free of cost to the residents along with cost effective solutions. A number of seminars/workshops, exhibitions, and training programmes were organized, involving the public, private engineers, building workers, government agencies, NGOs and private sector.

Installation of RWH structures was made a compulsory pre-requisite for providing water and sewer connections for all new buildings. Planning permission by CMDA and issue of license by the corporation are accorded only to those new buildings with RWH structures. Building regulation rules have also been modified in order to implement RWH throughout the state. A time frame of one year is given to existing houses for installing RWH structures. Information such as models, designs of various RWH structures, guidelines, tips for the maintenance of direct collection, list of resource persons etc., were also made available in the form of brochures, booklets, and electronic & print media, and also on Metro Water's website.

To achieve 100% coverage of RWH, the Tamil Nadu Government has brought an action plan on a mission mode for translating the RWH programme to a people's movement by means of an ordinance which made RWH mandatory for all buildings in the state. Appeals to residents were made through advertisements in dailies, newspapers, leaflets, weekly magazines and TVs by the board continuously for a few months. Short skits involving celebrities, indicating the benefits of RWH, were telecasted on TV and in theatres. Stickers, posters and hoardings on RWH with an appeal and a statutory time limit were exhibited in public places like railway stations, bus stands, hospitals, office complexes, educational institutions, buses and auto-rickshaws. Essay and oratorical competitions were conducted for students, and meetings and seminars were held for resident welfare associations and women, to sensitize them towards RWH. The adequacy and effectiveness of RWH were verified by the metro staff, and proper action against owners was taken accordingly.
The observations on ground water level and quality from monitoring wells gave a positive impact on the RWH initiative. The water supply department of the state where this is being replicated should identify people and organizations concerned with water-related issues, and involve them in any attempt to promote and popularize RWH in the remaining states.

For further details, contact:
Mr. Shiv Das Meena, IAS
Managing Director
CMWSSB