Jamshedpur, Oct. 6: The message was loud and clear — harvest water or you may not be left with any.

More than 200 employees of Tata Steel and its sister companies today filed into Sakchi’s United Club to take part in a daylong workshop on rainwater harvesting.

The event was organised by the environment department of the steel major under guidance of its chief of environment G. Udaya Bhaskar. The company’s vice president Anand Sen inaugurated the event, during which a booklet on rainwater conservation was also launched.

Addressing the gathering, Sen said rainwater was one of the chief sources of fresh water in today’s world. However, despite Jharkhand receiving close to 1,400mm of rainfall every year, acute shortage of water persisted in many areas. Hence, the need of harvesting rainwater.

“Fresh water received during rainfall can be conserved using various techniques,” he said, encouraging more people to come forward and participate in brainstorming sessions that generated new ideas for conservation.

The main speaker on the occasion was K.R. Gopinath, chairman of Chennai-based KRG Rainwater Foundation, who chose to share the best practises in water conservation that had been adopted by various industries across the country over the years.

Gopinath, an Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award winner for his outstanding services, achievements and contributions, has worked extensively in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the field of rainwater conservation.

Apart from Sen and Gopinath, among others who took to the stage today was Tata Steel’s Naomundi engineering services chief Saroj Banerjee.

Banejee, during his address, presented a case study on successful implementation of rainwater harvesting at iron ore mines of Tata Steel.

Taking cue, divisional manager (environment) Prashant Kumar, who took the stage after Banerjee, presented a study of how rainwater harvesting had worked for Tata Motors. Others like Kumud Lata of Tata Steel’s engineering and projects division and Pranay Sinha, deputy general manager of Jusco, also cited examples of rainwater conservation techniques that were being used in their respective fields and future plans of implementation of newer techniques.

Among those who took part in today's workshop were employees of Tata Motors, Tata Growth Shop, Tata Blue Scope, Tubes Division, Jusco.