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The man behind a vigorous and unrelenting crusade to encourage rain water harvesting in Chennai, Shekar Raghavan is surely an inspiration to our countrymen. Since his childhood days, he had a curiosity about finding possible ways to store the rain water. His inquisitiveness to seek feasible techniques to conserve rain water later became his life’s sole objective and mission.
After completing his PhD in theoretical physics from Madras University, Raghavan went on to teach there as a senior professor of the physics department. He taught at the University of Madras for a period of six years, but had to quit his job due to some unresolved issues with the college authorities.
To remain in the city of Chennai, he went on to work as a marketing executive. Working as a research fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies, Raghavan leant about the traditional water harvesting preservation techniques. The classical rainwater harvesting reservoirs, better known as ‘erys’ in southern India, provided water to areas with relatively low rainfall.
His modest attempt to preserve water began when he felt an excessive salt in the water in his locality of Besant Nagar. A scientist by profession, Raghavan went on to study about the classical and traditional ways to conserve the rainwater.
He studied decades-old surveys of hundreds of villages. The surveys made him aware and showed him how the villagers saved water in the temple ponds and in the fields. An idea struck his mind to apply the same mechanism with innovation in the cities.
He kicked off a campaign in 1995 and started with door to door visits of several apartments and buildings and informing them about the need for rainwater harvesting. He was shooed away from various places, but bearing all odds, he continued his struggle.
On one fine day, he conveyed his plan to the editor of a local newspaper and a school principal. With the help of the school principal, he was able to teach the parents of the students the urgent need to preserve groundwater. With the little amount of money he had, he even printed pamphlets and distributed them all over the city. Albeit the initial days of his campaign were troublesome, his determination and love for nature inspired him to cross all the hurdles and achieve his objective.
He helped the families in making recharge wells and pits and filters to conserve the rainwater. A new government in 2001 aided Shekar Raghavan with financial help and volunteers to support his noble cause. The government even made it compulsory for families to preserve the rainwater, providing them with money to build rainwater harvesting mechanisms on rooftops and then discharging the water into a well. Recycling rainwater and conservation even helped the farmers in irrigation. Slowly and steadily, he taught the people of Chennai about applying filters to get clean water.
The tender love for his city Chennai brought him international fame. His tireless efforts to conserve the rain water helped Chennai overcome the low ground water level problems. An inspiration for youth all over the country, Shekar Raghavan is a professor turned social entrepreneur who has motivated several Indians to preserve rain water and live in harmony with the mother earth.
He has taught the people of our nation the urgency and necessity of rainwater harvesting, reusing waste water for other purposes and using less water to promote water conservation.
His priceless and the invaluable endeavor has etched his name in several books and made him an Ashoka fellow, an award for public welfare.
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