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| johad, sandrp in |
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| alamy in. |
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| johad in Rajasthan, .indiatimes.com |
Armed with a degree in Ayurvedha medical sciences Dr. Rajendra Singh in the 1980s served village the community in Rajasthan, India and cured their eye problems and night blindness Being young and energetic, upon staying in the Rajasthani village for a while, he realized the villagers there and elsewhere in this semi arid area had no access to potable water. The women had to walk to far off places in the hot sun to bring water for the family's daily requirements. Countless women from families in the remote villages daily had to go though the rigors of bringing drinking water, walking all the way up and down. There are no community wells close by.
At the age of 28 in 1985, being a native of Uttar Pradesh and son of a wealthy landlord, he wanted to do something for the villagers to get enough water for their daily needs and to mitigate their problem. Water is the most essential thing for their survival there and there is an urgent need to address the issue. Without any hesitation, he quit his government job (employed in Jaipur), left his family and settled in a small village in Rajasthan’s Alwar district. This and other adjacent districts are water-stressed, receiving less than 650 mm rain fall a year brought by SW Monsoon. His initial idea was to start clinics to get the attention of the people and was serious about applying the age-old traditional technology used by our forefathers to get water. This will transform the mundane lives of the people here and bring them hope and confidence to take care of their livelihood.
He, with ample support from four people from a non profit organization called Tarun Bharat Sangh (it traces its roots to the University of Rajasthan), focused his attention to the hinter land.
Working hard with dedication and proper planning, Dr. Rajendra brought water back to some 1,000 villages. He set out to build johads, or traditional earthen dams. Two decades after Rajendra Singh arrived in Rajasthan, 8,600 johads and other structures to collect water had been built,” according to the Stockholm International Water Institute, that on March 20, 2015 awarded him the ''2015 Stockholm Water Prize''(sometimes described as the Nobel prize for water). Earlier in 2001 Singh was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for his distinguished contribution to water management in the semiarid region of Rajasthan.
His very first project in the village of Gopalpura, was a success and the good news began to spread like a summer bush fire in the parched villages. Singh wrote in 2009. ”Village people started approaching me for helping them to do the same in their areas.”
Between 1985 and 2007, he built some 8,600 such structures in over 1,068 villages covering 6,500 square kilometres. they were built by local communities working with the organization Tarun Bharat Sangh.
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| traditional water storage system, India johad, en.wikipedia.org |
Because of Singh's sustained work, Alwar and other 10 districts are dotted with 4,500 working johads. Now five rivers flow year round fed by a protected watershed and the revitalizing impact of the village reservoirs. The additional advantage is land under cultivation has grown by five times and this increased the income of the farmers. Local men find a job in their own village and for the women folks, they can access water locally, no need to walk up and down farther than the village to fetch a pitcher or two of water
Success did not come to him easily. The state officials, invoking State Irrigation and Drainage Act of 1954 set the road blocks for his mission. They filed countless cases against him in the court
. Undaunted, he kept approaching various government officials for help and cooperation. People like Sadvi Padmavati and swami Atma Bhodananda and Greta Thernburg gave him the needed inspiration. The visit of former President K.R. Narayanan in 2000 to one of his projects changed every thing. No more red tape and no more roadblocks by the arrogant govt. officials.
Now 60 years old, Rajaendra Singh is an inspiration to the young people in the area of water conservation and management. Salutations to Dr. Rajendra Singh, a worthy Indian whose sustained mission and commitments will act as a stimulus to the future generation of young people.
https://qz.com/india/367875/an-ancient-technology-is-helping-indias-water-man-save-thousands-of-parched-villages/ |
| Dr. Rajendra Singh, Water man of India. godofsmallthing.com |
Now 60 years old, Rajaendra Singh is an inspiration to the young people in the area of water conservation and management. Salutations to Dr. Rajendra Singh, a worthy Indian whose sustained mission and commitments will act as a stimulus to the future generation of young people.