Pointing to the water crisis looming over the world, water scientist and winner of the World Water Prize Rajendra Singh said that India had solutions to the global water woes and could avert a possible World War III that might break out over water.
“The water crisis is a global problem, but the solution is local. India is the only country in the entire world which has the inherent culture of respecting the water and following the principle of retreat, reuse and recycle water from ages,” he said.
He was delivering a special lecture at the national-level water literacy convention organised jointly by the Sharnbasva University, NSS Unit of the Gulbarga University, Jala Samitigala Okkuta, WALMI, and other organisations here on Sunday.
Though there had been some aberrations in practising these principles in the recent past in some regions of the country, he said the culture that was instilled by our elders to conserve water and better water management practices are still followed.
“If these principles and water management skills are adopted worldwide, we can avert the global water crisis. Exercising water ethics and launching a water literacy movement across the stakeholders on the just and effective use of water could save the world from the water crisis,” he said.
Stressing the need for collaborative effort by all the sections of the society, particularly the younger generations and students, Dr. Singh, the winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for his efforts to change the face of the drought-prone villages in Rajasthan and making them water self sufficient, said that the effective water literacy movement based on the principles of ‘Jal-Jangal-Jameen Protection’ movement would lead to a better future through respect for nature and community-driven decentralised water management practices.
Dwelling in detail about his work in the drought-prone villages in Rajasthan for more than four decades, Dr. Singh said 12 dried up rivers had been revived and thousands of dried-up borewells have been recharged through improved groundwater reserves to turn drought-prone villages into the perennial source of vegetables for the markets of New Delhi and Jaipur.
“This all happened without any help from the government, but the cooperation and active participation of the people,” he said.
Secretary of the Sharnbasaveshwar Vidya Vardak Sangh Basavaraj Deshmukh, in his inaugural address, said that there was an urgent need for recharging of the groundwater resources, which has steeply come down in most parts of the region.
Chairman of the Telangana Water Resources Development Corporation Prakash Rao, Director of the WALMI Rajendra Potdar, former MLA B.R. Patil, were among others who spoke on the occasion. Registrar of the Sharnbasva University Anilkumar Bidve administered an oath to the students and other participants in the convention to save and protect water for the future.
