India’s water warriors rise - leading the water revolution in countryside
VK Bahuguna
December 11, 2025
(The writer is former IFS officer and Chairman of Centre for Resource Management)
Amidst whenthe world climate change negotiators are busy in pulling wires in Brazil in the UNFCC CoP 30 summit, the world specially those suffering most from climatic vagaries are watching if there is a thaw between the divergent positions of developed and developing countries specially truly adhering to the cardinal principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. But this is a matter to be dealt with separately. As this writer has been repeatedly warning the government negotiators and policy makers about charting out a south-south climate resilient developmental planning to ward off the deleterious effects of climate change on environment specially on food, nutrition and water security of billions of people. The Brazil’s Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) climate change fund for $ 125 billion to support the tropical forests through government and private contribution for spending $4 per hectare in improving the forests is a welcome move. Brazil herself has committed $1 billion in this fund. India has supported it in principle. The fund may help in water and bio-diversity conservation. However, India should take a lead in focusing on creating a fund in collaboration with China and group of 77 to conserve and manage water for better climate management as already the temperature had crossed the 1.5 degree Celsius thresh hold this year as reported by Carlo Buontempo, the Director of European Climate Agency Copernicus and going to severely impact world hydrology. If India can take a lead like it did in creating ‘sola alliance’on creating a water conservation fund forests will automatically be taken care of.As the world is literally sitting on a hot spot, notwithstanding, these CoPs which are hilariously optimistic without any substance of change, we in India need to take drastic action at the level of civil society as also in the government with a bottom-upinnovative approach right from village level to national level. Already the water for every household scheme launched in 2019 by the Prime Minister is a resounding success with community participation and had provided to almost78.58% (15.56 crores out of 18 crore) house hold access to tap water connections compared to around 7 crores earlier before 2019. Let us substantiatewater conservation from the examples created by our civil society.
Thewater availability studydone by Central Water Commissionusing Space Inputs, 2019, the average annual per capita water availability for year 2021 and 2031 has been assessed as 1486 cubic meter and 1367 cubic meter respectively. Annual per-capita water availability of less than 1700 cubic meter is considered as water stressed condition whereas annual per-capita water availability below 1000 cubic meters is considered as a water scarcity condition.The country's rivers run dry, aquifers deplete, and millions face seasonal scarcity, underscoring the urgency of sustainable practices. So, we need to look into our countryside to search for the water warriors beyond government programs. The country has shown time and again that our society produces leaders from grass root level right from freedom struggle to tree conservation through world famous Chipko movement to now ‘sow seed to get water’ (pani bao pani pao) launched successfully in Uttarakhand by Mr. Mohan Kandpal and others elsewhere in the country. This has become amply clear in 2025 year’s water award announced by the Ministry of Jal shakti, government of India. These water warriors brought to fame this year have shown the way how a public movement can change the countryside scenario drastically. This writer while in Planning Commission had in 2010 assessed the great work done by Popat Pawar in the Hiware bazar village in Ahmed Nagar district of Maharashtra turning a ghost villageinto bubbling with prosperity only due to water harvesting in adjoining forests under the Joint Forest management program resulting in huge agriculture and milk production.
In this context, water conservation awards serve as beacons of hope, spotlighting grassroots innovators, communities, and institutions that transform despair into resilience. These examples celebrate individual and collective triumphs but also produce scalable models, fostering a culture of stewardship.The National Water Awards, recognizing innovations have galvanized action, proving that local ingenuity can recharge ecosystems and empower marginalized sections who have been facing acute water stress.
This year’s awards were announced and conferred by President Droupadi Murmu on November 18 2025 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, honored 46 winners a 30% increase from prior years.These honors were backed by field verifications from the Central Water Commission and Central Ground Water Board. At the heart of this narrative stands Mohan Chandra Kandpal, a 59-year-old chemistry teacher from Kande village in Uttarakhand's Almora district, whose lifelong crusade earned him theBest Individual (North Zone) award. For 36 years, Kandpal has traversed the fragile Himalayan foothills, where deforestation and erratic monsoons have rendered ancient springs and traditional stone reservoirs. Fate struck him in 1990, observing the Riskan River's tributaries dwindle amiddry coupled with soil erosion. He resolved to ac and launched "Pani Boao–Pani Uggao" (Sow Water–Grow Water), a master stroke that charged the women and youth for action blending this rhetoric withindigenous community wisdom mobilization.Kandpal's strategy hinges on "khals and chaals"—shallow percolation pits that capture runoff, allowing rainwater to recharge aquifers. Between 1990 and 2012, he spearheaded the digging of thousands, coupled with afforestation drives planting over 100,000 saplings of native species like oak and rhododendron. People changedploughing techniquesof agriculture fields to till perpendicular to slopes, creating furrows that channel water deeper into the earth rather than letting it run away. This low-cost tweak, disseminated through farmer workshops, amplified recharge efficiency. By 2025, over 5,000 such structures dotted 40 villages, reviving 27 depleted sources in hamlets like Valna, Bitholi, Kande, and Ganoli. Complementing this is the "Woh Pani Hoga" (That Water Will Be There) initiative, which has bolstered the Riskan River's flow, turning seasonal streams perennial.It was purely public program though MANREGA funds might have been dovetailed.
Another well-known example is Dr. Rajendra Singh, the original "Waterman of India," whose 50-year odyssey in Rajasthan's arid heartland earned the 2001 Ramon Magsaysay Award and 2015 Stockholm Water Prize—the "Nobel of Water." Singh revived over 1,000 villages by resurrecting 8,600+ johads (earthen check dams) and bamboo drip systems in the Aravalli hills and targeting the parched Alwar district, he started "Pani Panchayats"—village water parliaments and thus democratizing resource governance.The results five rivers, now flow perennially across 6,500 sq km, enabling afforestation of 1.5 million trees and repopulating ghost villages. Yet another example is fromBihar's flood-prone plains, Kishore Jaiswal, a Munger-based activist, bagged the Best Individual (Eastern Zone) for desilting the Ganga's tributaries.He with NGO ‘Jalsrot Vikas Sansthan’, mobilized 20,000 volunteers to remove 5 lakh cubic meters of silt from the Chandan River, restoring flow to 100 villages. In another example of social institutions, the Art of Living Social Projects received twoawards for reviving 50+ lakes in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu via yoga-integrated cleanups, impacting 1 million lives. The Barmer district administration also bagged the rain water harvesting award which was received by the district collector Tina Dabi. If each block of the country, do it the prosperity and progress with climatic adaptation will be at our doors and happiness in the faces of millions of rural masses. These people have shown in a much better manner how to tackle climate change in tandem with communities then the big CoPs of UNFFCC.
(Tripurainfo)
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