We all are well aware of the water crisis going on in southern India. People are travelling far from home to fetch water. People have started to come up with innovative techniques to conserve water. In fact, in recent news, it is told that two frogs were married in Udipi, Karnataka to please the rain gods. All these things are a mere indicator of human has fallen into the chaos that they created themselves.

However, from among so many environmental exploiters, one man came forward to rescue the people from water scarcity. Dr Vishwanath Srikantaiah is a water activist and an urban planner. He has collaborated with several communities to carry out successful campaigns to conserve water in Bengaluru.

Being an active member of the Rainwater Club, Vishwanath has developed and designed various water harvesting structures in Karnataka and installed them on roof-top of various households & industries/factories in the state to conserve rainwater. The club is in existence since 1995 and they are spreading awareness about the significance of rainwater harvesting.

In an interview with Logical Indian, Dr Vishwanath said “For every sq metre of roof area, one has to create 20 litres of storage of recharge, and for every sq metre of the paved area around the building, one has to create 10 litres of storage of recharge. The recharge well should be a minimum of 10 feet,”

Dr Vishwanath has been involved in these activities for 24 years along with his friends and has been an inspiration for many. They have encouraged a lot of people to set up rainwater harvesting structures around their household. 
Not only this, but he has also developed a filter, which can be used to purify the rainwater. It is called ‘Varun’ (Name of Indian god of water).

Digging Up Wells
To save the city from the water crisis, 750 families dug up wells al around the city to make water available in such crisis. However, their earnings have ceased because of the borewell companies groping up the market.

Dr Vishwanath has launched a project along with a network of voluntary citizens ‘Friends of Lake’, to give this well-digger a job by engaging them in digging a million recharge wells in Bengaluru. The rooftop rainwater shall come rolling down from the installed rainwater harvesting structures, directly into the recharge wells and finally reaching the aquifers underground.

These well-diggers have dug 10,000 open wells that are functional and being used by people regularly. They have also developed about a 100,000 recharge wells at the city level and targeted at a million.

Reviving the dried lakes
Dr Vishwanath is associated with ‘Lake Rejuvenation Community’ who are promoting the idea of integrated urban water management. In this program, wastewater is treated and sent to lakes. This way groundwater availability is assured. The water is being treated by ecological processes.

What an amazing idea to solve two problems simultaneously. Shiksha news praises Dr VIshwanath for his ideas & hard work and wishes him all the best for his work. May he becomes successful in saving the southern cities from drying up.