"Rainman" Sekhar Raghavan has a Ph.D in Physics and he used to work for some years at the Madras University as a temporary lecturer. He quit his position as his community background came in the way of his permanent employment and he kept going with a couple of odd jobs. A ten year stint with marketing and finally another ten years with Socio Economic Research Institute mentored by S.Gurumurthy gave him the contacts and inputs required for his Rain Water Harvesting activities which he began as his initiative by the year 1995. Sekhar loves Chennai and he lives in a apartment in Besant Nagar At 69, he bubbles with enthusiasm while talking about himself and his favourite subject in life - Rain Water Harvesting.
"I really love Chennai and as a youngster I remember that the sandy beaches helped us to harvest rainwater. Post monsoon the water table used to just be four feet below the ground in our well. I never moved out also because of Hindi, a language which I was made and taught to hate by the people of those times. Coming to Rain Water Harvesting , I came across the subject at the Socio Economic Research Institute where I had put in a number of years. The Institute sent us around in order to understand how our people had lived in the past. Every aspect had to be recorded and this included all the practices and faith of the people. I walked from village to village for some time and learnt much about our past. It was the functional history that was getting recorded. My colleague T.M.Mukundan did some interesting work about the Erys (water bodies) of Tamilnadu and now his book is extremely popular. Our traditional Ery system was known as "Kere" in Karnataka and "Cheruvu" in Andhra those days. It was possible to harvest the rainwater using a network of canals, check dams and ponds. The running water began to stand and percolate underground. This method helped to recharge the ground water levels. In fact the fifteen to twenty five feet deep ponds kept the wells full of water. The ponds recharged the ground water levels above and at the level of the aquifers. This motivated me to come up with a model and I began my Rain Water Harvesting work by the year 1995. "smiles Sekhar Raghavan.
Sekhar Raghavan believes in intellectual integrity and he is happy to share details about his work and the people behind his success, "Once I understood the benefits of harvesting water, I decided to set out on a mission to do the same at Chennai. I used to walk to all the apartment blocks street by street on Sundays for about three years in order to push the concept. Many of the urban educated did not buy my idea and the security guys at the buildings used to turn me away thinking that I was trying to sell something. However I did not give up and finally the column by the Editor of the neighbourhood newspaper "Adyar Times", Vincent D'Souza propelled the cause. I met him and urged him to take up this cause and through his note he requested everyone to support my work. By about 2003, people started calling me. In some cases they took my advice and in certain cases I was asked to implement the project. Eventually I formed a group of masons, plumbers and well diggers who executed the tasks as per the need of the hour. We used to analyse and suggest the solution on paper. The people concerned got our advice for free and only if they took the idea forward, they had to spend money. They were free to implement it on their own. Our job was to ensure that they were motivated enough to harvest rain water".
Years of work brought in success and Sekhar's team has created over 5000 recharge structures all over Chennai and its neighbourhood. The Late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa returned to office in the year 2001 and she formed a committee to work on Rain Water Harvesting with Sekhar Raghavan being part of it. "The committee used to meet every Monday at the chambers of Shantha Sheela Nair IAS (Secretary - Municipal Administration & Water Supply) and after about one and a half years the Government decided to make Rain Water Harvesting mandatory. At a personal level I decided to create a "Raincentre" with the help of volunteers and the Late Chief Minister J Jayalalthaa inaugurated it on the August of 2002. The concept of a Raincentre was to share info while also providing assistance to anyone who approached us. The Government guidelines were based on the Raincentre model and 31 st August 2003 was kept as the target date. The monsoons of 2005 gave us 250 cms of rainfall in Chennai and it was almost double the yearly rainfall. Raincentre did a survey and discovered that the water level had gone up by twenty feet due to the presence of Rain water Harvesting structures. The Government claimed 99 % compliance but we think that its around 50 % and even that is excellent . All the 39 temple tanks in Chennai got filled up as a consequence of the same. Only the current drought is causing problems for the temple tanks. " adds the ebullient Rainman Sekhar Raghavan.
He advises people to dig a well which is three to six feet wide with a depth of about fifteen feet. He requests them to line it up with concrete rings and cover them with a strong concrete slab with bores. The space between the concrete rings helps to maintain stability while also aiding water harvesting. He states that permeable soil harvests better and he adds that abandoned borewells can be used to harvest rainwater. "Recharge borewells are as per Central Ground Water Board norms but they may turn out to be expensive to maintain", says he.
Sekhar Raghavan was once invited to Japan in 2005 and he has presented a paper on the subject at the land of the rising sun. He is an "Ashoka" fellow and has been to Sri Lanka thrice in order to educate them on Rain Water Harvesting. The Sri Lankan Government has made water harvesting mandatory thereafter. Recently he was requested by the AAP Government headed by Kejriwal to advice them and he did so by visiting Delhi on a number of occasions. Later on, he got an NGO educated in his methods and they are taking it forward. Nowadays Raincentre is implementing projects at charitable institutions with the aid of CSR funds (Corporate Social Responsibility) and has done over 80 structures in 16 institutions and they include the Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya, Ramakrishna Mutt, Seva Sadan, Isabel Hospital, Adyar Cancer Institute, New College,Vivekananda Coillege etc. We implement it at institutions belonging to all religions and denominations, "We make sure that the institutions fit four conditions and they are - should be carrying on a noble ideal, atleast fifty years old, should have a big campus and should be dependant on ground water. We help them CSR funds if they fit the bill." states a thoughtful Sekhar Raghavan.
"Coimbatore and other cities should have their own Raincentres and should this initiative should be by the residents. The cities should use all available methods for water harvesting and should not just rely on one method. Coimbatore in particular is an ecological leader with NGOs like Siruthuli, Raac, Osai and the other initiatives by concerned people which are cleaning up the lakes with public support. Much can be achieved in this city. The journey will be interesting. It will be fantastic but will be difficult. Please do not call it consulting for it has to be free advise. After all lets give back something to the society. Its high time that we begin to treat water properly. Water is the elixir of life "says the 69 year old who is literally bubbling with energy that can likened to that of a fresh water spring.