India’s ‘water man’ wins Stockholm water prize 2015
Monday, 23/03/2015
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LONDON: A campaigner from Alwar district in Rajasthan has been conferred the Nobel Prize for water for bringing water to 1,000 villages.
Rajendra Singh, dubbed the Water man of India, used rainwater harvesting to address the crisis, reported BBC. It involved building low-level banks of earth to hold back the flow of water in the rainy season and allow it to seep into the ground for future use.
The judges of the Stockholm Water Prize said his ‘cheap and simple’ methods prevented floods and restored soil and rivers.
Singh, who first trained as a medic, took up a post in a Rajasthan village where he was told the greatest need in the region was not health care but drinking water.
He said when he started working, they were only looking at resolving the drinking water crisis but their aim today is to convert the war on water into peace.
Torgny Holmgren, director of the Stockholm International Water Institute, called Singh “a beacon of hope” in a world where demand for freshwater is booming.
