Rainwater Harvesting In Chennai: What Made It Work?:

TLDR: In this article, the authors tried to find out what has made RWH work in Chennai, at least to the extent it has worked, as many such policies in our country either tend to fail or at least run a very high risk of failure.

Abstract: Sustainable water management is vital for sustainable development, especially in light of threats such as climate change, growing population, rising prosperity and industrialization. India is facing increasing freshwater scarcity, particularly in urban centres such as Chennai, and is struggling to manage water resources. It is widely believed that Chennai has had a very successful experience with rainwater harvesting since its 2002 law mandating it for every building. This article tries to find out what has made RWH work in Chennai, at least to the extent it has worked, as many such policies in our country either tend to fail or at least run a very high risk of failure. The article argues that Chennai has been a case of non-government agents from the public leading the charge to start with and later working with government agents. It is this broad alignment of government and non-government agents that helped make the policy fairly successful. The policy directives essentially reinforced the general practi...