It has been 15 years since he started his campaign for rainwater harvesting in water-starved Chennai, but 63-year-old Sekar Raghavan's dedication to the task has not waned with the passage of time.

In fact his resolve has only become stronger.

His mother's death in 1995 was the trigger that got him to seriously take up the idea of rainwater harvesting (RWH).

His doggedness to RWH and eco-sanitation fetched him this year's Harmony Silver Award instituted for the elderly (or 'silvers') by Harmony for Silver Foundation, founded by Tina Ambani, wife of industrialist Anil Ambani, to bring about a change in the life of several persons.

The foundation works towards enhancing the quality of life of the elderly in the country.

Reminiscing, Raghavan says things were not easy.

Raghavan, then working at the Centre for Policy studies, a socio-economic research institute in Chennai, had to get a majority of residents in buildings in Besant Nagar, where he has been staying for almost 40 years, realise the importance of RWH.

The area, one km from the sea, used to have good groundwater till about 10 years back. But increase in the number of multi-storeyed complexes, subsequent over-expolitation of groundwater and failure to put in large quantities of rainwater into the soil in monsoon, led to groundwater becoming saline, he said.

Raghavan also realised RWH was important in urban areas in general and coastal cities in particular, where there is heavy dependence on groundwater.

"I am not very sure who motivated me to get into RWH except to say I took it up seriously immediately after my mother's death in January 1995," he said.

He said there were some who had realised the importance of RWH before him but they had done it in their premises and not sensitised neighbours. He realised RWH was a community activity and people have to be sensitised about the importance of RWH.

"That is why I got involved in a door to door campaign in Besant Nagar way back in 1995."

It was not easy to get his ideas implemented among people.

Some thought he was 'crazy' and the concept irrelevant. They went so far as to instruct the watchmen not to let him in.

They felt there was enough groundwater to last for decades and there was no need to get into RWH. Some failed to realise groundwater was only rainwater percolated over time. Their education had not sensitised them on the need to protect and sustain water resources.

"It was a hard struggle for the first three years and if I am asked to redo the campaign all over again I will run away," Raghavan said.

To promote RWH in Chennai, Raghavan and a few others formed a Rain Centre and set up a trust, the Akash Ganga trust, to mobilise funds to create the centre in 2002. The centre was inaugurated on August 21, 2002 by then chief minister Jayalalithaa. Their activities received a boost with the government making RWH mandatory in all buildings, private and public, in 2002-03.

Raghavan, the centre's director, said RWH is mostly implemented in multistoreyed apartments as they need it more and it is also not expensive as the implementation cost is shared by the number of flats.

Though the centre's activities are mostly in Chennai, it does get calls and invitations to visit not only other towns in Tamil Nadu but also other cities in India.

Raghavan had visited Guwahati to advice the Assam government on implementing RWH in the secretariat complex.

In Chennai, they undertake the job of implementing RWH with the help of a well-trained team.

"We do not get into commercial activity but play the role of a facilitator...We would have implemented RWH in more than 1,000 complexes, including multi-storeyed residential and commercial complexes, hospitals, schools, colleges, factories, places of worship.." Besides,they also help people in periodic maintenance of RWH structures.

Residents who implemented rainwater harvesting reported an appreciable increase in their well water level.

Open dug wells in some apartment complexes, which were dry a couple of decades ago, filled up to two-thirds of their volume in the 2005 monsoon. Groundwater in borewells which had turned brackish, improved considerably in quality and is used even now for drinking and cooking. It thus proved RWH and good monsoon are necessary to increase the groundwater table, he said.

Raghavan has also been involved for the past few years in creating awareness about the need, relevance and importance of ecological sanitation in semi-urban and rural areas.

"We have constructed around 70 composting toilets in Kovalam and a nearby village Pungeri. We would like to continue this work in future and sensitise villagers about using human waste (urine and faeces) as organic farming manure. We plan to set up urine banks in villages which will trade in urine," he said.

"It is my passion and concern for water in general and RWH in particular that keeps me going. I am unable to tolerate any kind of wastage and definitely not water and rainwater. I do not have any motto in life except keep myself involved in issues related to water, particularly in urban areas," he said.