A few like-minded residents of Chennai who were concerned about the vital issue of freshwater availability in general and sustenance of its sources through Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) in particular formed the Akash Ganga Trust in January 2002. Taken together, Akash ("sky") and Ganga (the perennial river Ganges of North India, believed to have descended from the sky) mean "water received from the sky", or rainwater.

The Trust is a not-for-profit service organization registered both with the Registrar of Cooperative Societies of the Tamil Nadu Government, as well as with the Income Tax department of the Government of India under Sec. 12 A of the I.T.Act. The Trust has also obtained exemption under Sec. 80G of the I.T.Act. It has its account in the Besant Nagar branch of ICICI and the account number is 603301103477.

The day to day affairs of the Trust are being managed by a Board of Trustees. Technical advice is provided by two Resource persons and an Advisor.

On August 21, 2002, the trust launched Chennai's Rain Centre, inaugurated by the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. The Rain Centre, the first of its kind in the country, is a one-stop information and assistance centre on RWH.

The initial seed money for starting this centre came from a few non-resident Indians living abroad. Further support in the form of resource material was provided by Centre for Science and Environment, head-quartered in New Delhi. The state government is also one of the co-sponsors of the Centre.

Since 2005, our Trust has also been involved in creating awareness about the importance of ecological sanitation, the ultimate in sanitation, in peri-urban and rural areas particularly among those living in coastal towns and villages. Ecological sanitation is all about composting human waste, faeces and urine, and involves the use of urine-diverting composting toilets constructed above ground. The system is simple and easy to use.