Media Release

Udupi, Nov 29: Udupi Civil Engineering Department of Shri Madhwa Vadiraja Institute of Technology and Management in association with ISTE, Sthapathi and Environmental Club organised a talk on “Rainwater Harvesting in Urban Areas” by Dr Sekhar Raghavan, director, Akash Ganga Trust Rain Centre, Chennai on November 28 in the institute premises.

Jagadish Acharya, governing council member, Harish Belman,governing council Member, Dr Thirumaleshwara Bhat, principal, Dr Ganesh Aithal, vice-principal, Dr Sudharshan Rao, dean, quality assurance, Dr Deepika, HOD, civil engineering department of SMVITM were present for the programme.

Dr Thirumaleshwara Bhat, principal of SMVITM welcomed the gathering and explained the importance of implementing the rainwater harvesting in the campus.

Jagadish Acharya the governing council member of SMVITM addressed the gathering and introduced Dr Sekhar Raghavan to the gathering and he also highlighted the good woks done by Dr Raghavan in Chennai which helped to improve the quality and quantity of groundwater in Chennai.

Dr Sekhar Raghavan called as the ‘Rain Man’ of Chennai in his talk created the awareness about the importance of rainwater harvesting. In his session he explained the importance of rainwater harvesting for each and every region. He also said that we should find ways to save every drop of naturally available rainwater.

He gave a lot of information about the rainwater harvesting done in the country. He explained the case studies of rainwater harvesting. He gave enough information about the rain centre started in Chennai during the time of Jayalalitha.

He explained the calculation of rainfall which is much required before starting the harvest. He said that the rainwater harvesting is the sustainable way of water management and it is the only way to sustain both our surface and subsurface water.

He also said that the food security can be achieved by harvesting paddy and water security can be by harvesting rainwater.

In his talk he said that the first evidence of human effort in harvesting rainwater came from Dholavira in Gujarat state dating back to 3000 BC. The success rates of rainwater harvesting was evident in places where it was taken in the form of increase in the groundwater table level, improvement in the quality of water, making people less dependent on municipality water thereby helping achieve self-reliance in water.

The case study indicates that there was phenomenal increase in the ground water table level.

It was much beneficial programme for the students and staff of the college. Principal and management appreciated the initiative to implement the rainwater harvesting in the SMVITM campus as per the guidance of Dr Sekhar Raghavan.

The programme was compered by Nidhi Patkar from 3rd year AI-DS department.