Chennai: Post-sixties is the time to relax and take on pilgrimage; but not for S Srinivasan. For this Adambakkam resident, life started only after his retirement. Thanks to his daughter, who prompted to do his bit to the society. Now, he is 80 and raring to go.
“My daughter suggested me to join Exnora International, a renowned NGO that has been pioneering waste management and I readily agreed,” reminisces Srinivasan.
Soon after being a part of the movement, he began understanding the seriousness of mishandling them and has been advocating source segregation, composting, and rain water harvesting from 1990. Despite being old, he has been stoppable in promoting the causes that he believes strongly.
Speaking about his association with Exnora, he says, “It was the time when the organisation was beginning to look into the general cleanliness in Chennai and advocating source segregation. We campaigned extensively about keeping the streets clean, disposing the litter in bins and separating the waste.”
Srinivasan travelled street-by-street speaking to residents and seeking their participation in the activity of handling garbage. Within a few years, the movement gained momentum and worked hand-inglove with the government and he got an opportunity to take the propaganda to tier-2 and tier-3 districts in Tamilnadu and even in other States.
“We were deputed to the districts that was awashed by Tsunami in 2004 in Tamilnadu and we were handling the waste and managing it,” he adds.
Asked about how he convinced his family members to join the sustainable league, he replies, “It was really a herculean task. My family did not cooperate and slowly made them practice composting.”
In early 2000s, he began lending his voice for ‘rainwater harvesting’ and he holds pride in implementing it in Karuneegar Temple Tank, Adambakkam, even before it was made mandatory.
Now people are rushing to install one at their homes, but Srinivasan saw its need two decades ago and has been taking his idea with the popular ‘Rain man’ Sekhar Raghavan. “When I began creating awareness about the need through pamphlets way back then, the response was totally poor as people did not realise the need to have one,” Srinivasan adds.
However, when he repeated the same this summer, he says he received several calls seeking guidance. Reason, one may ask? The obvious water scarcity that the city is staring at. He was terribly disappointed when all the rain water was sent back to the sea during 2015 floods and finds no joy in saying “I told you so.”
He also rues about plundering the groundwater resource and pushing it to great depths instead of saving rain. Emphasising on the importance, he adds, “Chennai’s annual rain brings 100 litre of water per sq ft. If effectively managed and with people’s total participation in harvesting the rain water, Chennai should never face water problem or would we need desalination plants to fulfill our water needs, the funds spent on such could be tilized to improve infrastructure for better water management which would enhance environment around us.”
Srinivasan, despite his age factor, is willing to guide people on setting up a facility to store water. He can be reached at 099620 51286.