Reviving Rivers with Dr Rajendra Singh - The Waterman of India

If you do something for water, water gives to everything for us. Water is Earth's most precious gift. Our ecosystems, our bodies, our civilizations, and our lives depend on the health and abundance of fresh water. When we look into the future, it can be a scary prospect because the stable ecosystems of our ancestors are unraveling at the seams. Across countries both rich and poor, drought and water scarcity are taking their toll on people and nature. But what can we do? What are the solutions when cities are running out of water, forests are engulfed in flames, and farmland is turning to desert? Over the last century, governments around the world looked to the wealthiest nations for solutions to water shortages. We dammed ancient rivers, created massive reservoirs, and built enormous irrigation systems to transport water from mountains to deserts. But these expensive systems have not actually solved our water problems. In fact, they seem to have made them worse. As we've searched around the world for ways to reverse water instability, we've found that the most impactful solutions have not come from the wealthy few, but rather from people with close to nothing, whose lives depend on the health of their water and land. One of these places, rural Rajasthan, has a remarkable story. In the driest region of India, individuals and communities came together and used simple natural methods to reverse drought and restore their watersheds. Its lessons are profound, and it stands out as a model for reviving both rivers and villages, even when resources are scarce. Though this work is the community's, it began with the courage of a single individual. This is the story of Rajendra Singh, known as the Water Man of India. The water is really the mother of peace, and the forest is the father of peace. If there is no water, a lot of tension starts. When the water comes, people have peace. Rajendra Singh is known around the world for his work restoring rivers and revitalizing watersheds. For the last 40 years, his organization Tarun Bharat Sangh has helped thousands of villages restore their local water supplies with simple earthworks and tree plantings. These simple structures, water bodies, called johads, capture and infiltrate the seasonal rains, recharging the groundwater and restoring the watershed. This work has regreened thousands of kilometers of land and resurrected rivers that had gone dry. What's so remarkable is that Rajendra didn't start out as a water steward. He was called to it. In his mid-twenties, Rajendra was a government volunteer who wanted to make a greater impact with his work. He sold all his possessions and left the city to start a medical practice in rural Rajasthan. As he was treating elderly villagers for night blindness, he met one village elder who showed Rajendra a more powerful way to help the community. One patient is called Mangu Meena. After the treatment, he say, Rajendra, what you are doing? You treated me. But what is the benefit of that? So you don't do the treatment of humankind. You treat it to the earth. Because this earth, nobody treat it today. If earth is sick, so nobody healthy. So if you are treated to the earth, earth treat to us and make healthy. And I'm listening him. And after that he told me, Rajendra, you stop your medicine. You stop your education. You start the water conservation. And stop evaporation. Over the coming days, Rajendra received his education on the water cycle. Mangu Kaka lowered Rajendra into various wells showing him the different geological layers within the landscape. In some areas they saw horizontally fractured geology and in others vertical fracturing within the earth. They observed how in places with vertically fractured geology, the trees grew taller and stronger because they were able to access the groundwater. So he teach me, he take me in a leather box and put 150 feet deep in the well. And after five minutes take out. And he ask, what you see in the well? I see a vertical fracture in the first well. What type of the tree there? So he ask me, you see that what type of the tree here? So where the vertical confined fracture, so the long tree and the long root going deep. Where the horizontal fracture, so no tree, just shrubs. So he teach me the underground aquifers with trees, with forest, with vegetation. Simple, simple way he teach me. And next day he take me where the water come from the height on the ridge and with the stream moving. So he told me, you make a water body here. Mangukaka took Rajendra to a place with tall trees and vertically fractured geology and told him to start building a water body there. Imagine a doctor in rural India, drenched in sweat, digging a hole. At first he was laughed at for digging in the earth, a task far below his class. But in the days and weeks that passed, he persevered. Eventually some of the villagers started to join him and with the help of the community, Rajendra completed the Johad before the seasonal monsoon. The rains came and with them the water to fill the Johad. But something even more miraculous happened. Downstream of the Johad, a well that had been dry for years was full to the top with fresh, clean water. The villagers were ecstatic. They now had the water they needed for their animals and agriculture. So the old man, Mangukaka, told me, if you do something for water, water give to everything for us. So that is a very difficult time for me because I don't understand what he say, what is the meaning, what we can do. But when I completed first water body and I seen the water in the downstream of the well, that is a great memory for me. This first success gave Rajendra the confidence and community support to keep building more water bodies. As a few dozen projects snowballed into a couple hundred, the size and scope of this water work increased. Over six years, Rajendra worked with local villages to build over 375 water bodies, some as large as 244 meters. As time passed, the results became outstanding. Rivers like the Arvari, which were dry for decades, started to flow year round. Each year the landscape stayed green longer into the dry season. By 2001, over 4,500 check dams were constructed with the help of 851 villages. River systems like the Ruperal, Sarsa, Bagani, and Jawaharlal Nehru came back to life. Water conservation and soil conservation is a real revolution. The conservation of water stopped the soil erosion and that would stop the drought in that place. So, because one old man called Mangu Kaka is my teacher, he teach me and I start the work. When before no water, no food, no fodder, nothing is in the village. So all young people migrated. When water come, all people come back. As much as this work benefited the land, it benefited the people even more. Villagers who once fled to the cities for work because of drought and poverty started to return. Female children who had been forced to stay home to help their mothers carry water were now able to go to school and learn to read and write. Desolate landscapes were restored to rich farmable land. Rivers became full of wildlife and fish once again. Before, we don't know when the rains come or not come. But now, the good rains come. Temperature reduced. So that is the really big change. And economically really big change. Before, when there were no crops, no employment, no grains, no water. Now is the water. Now is the grains. Now is the enjoyment in the villages. So this is a really big change in my community. By this time, over 6,500 kilometers of land that had once been a state of extreme water stress now had year-round streams, green vegetation, and abundant groundwater. As water returned to the landscape, so did life. The vegetation transpired water into the air, cooling the temperature and creating more consistent rain. The land which was once filled with despair now had a new life. For his work, Rajinder was honored with the Stockholm Water Prize in 2015. But the work he started is far from over. Dr. Rajinder Singh. Without love of nature, your education no meaning. So how did these community-driven projects succeed where billion-dollar government and NGO efforts have failed? Today, this education system destroys the love and respect of nature. This education system creates a control, flood control, drought control. So nature is not for control. Nature for love and respect. So this way of controlling is creating a disaster. You can't control the nature. You are the part of the nature. You are not a controller. This modern education system is really dangerous, creating fracture with the humankind and nature. Love and respect for nature are a key part of Rajinder's message. Because if people are to restore their watersheds, they need to learn how ecosystems function. And this comes from a deep connection to the land. By restoring nature, people see the impact they have on the land and reap the daily benefits of healthy water and soil. Because life in the village improves with the health of the ecosystem, solutions come from the community instead of the government. In contrast, the National Government of India has largely dealt with water scarcity by trying to engineer its way out. The $3 billion Ganges Cleanup Project launched in 2015 has seen little success. And recently, India had one of its largest dam failures. Despite the yearly growth of the economy and large infrastructure spending, water scarcity is increasing across India each year, with over 50% of the population currently living in extreme water stress. So why has Rajinder's movement been so successful? This effort is a community because if we're not thinking about the common future, if we don't give equal respect to the community and nature, we can't make prosperity and peace. This change comes in my region due to the community involvement. If they conserve the soil, they conserve the green. And the greenery sequestration of the carbon starts. And the good rain is coming in my region. Unlike a large dam, Rajinder's water restoration systems are carried out by local people with simple tools and earthworks. Water retention features like Johads can be constructed quickly and cheaply across landscapes. And villages see the results after the first monsoon. As wells recharge, groundwater comes back, and river systems come back to life. Now instead of fighting against nature, people use the yearly monsoon to restore their watershed. The nature is really God. Nature is God. When we can flow with nature, the nature gives us the flow of peace and enjoyment. So how do these community-driven projects actually restore the water cycle? How is it possible to revive rivers and bring back rain in one of the driest regions of the world? In the context of Rajasthan, water comes in the form of yearly monsoons and then stays dry for the rest of the year. In a climate so hot and so dry, water is best stored underground to reduce evaporation. Rajinder's approach is to build structures which capture and infiltrate the seasonal rain and conserve the soil and the vegetation to keep the water and earth protected from the sun. And water every year comes here, but the sun evaporates that. So increase recharge and decrease discharge. If no rain, so they have the fixed deposit in the bank of the earth, underground aquifer full with water, so they are taking water and they are using and they are growing crops. So that is big change. And now the water level come up, so not so much energy waste for taking water. By infiltrating water across the land and replanting vegetation and trees, groundwater recharges rapidly until it starts feeding the flow of nearby rivers. With the recharge of groundwater, seasonal rivers start to flow year round. Even if the yearly monsoon fails, the farmers still have a healthy groundwater supply. Due to this water conservation and greenery and soil conservation, more than million people benefited. 250,000 wells recharged. And with the increase in greenery, something miraculous started to happen. The local climate began to stabilize. Due to the climate change, there is the red heat is very high. And due to the red heat, clouds come and they go away without rains. So my region is a red shadow region. When I start the work, only 2% greenery there. Now it's a 48% land under the greenery. And due to the trans-evaporation of the green heat, the clouds come and giving the good rains there. When I start the work, so my earth is fevered, sick. Now my earth is healthy because the temperature going down 2 degree and very good rains. Not erratic or not clouds burst in my region. And now the farmers understand what they can do. So this is a big change come in my region. As the groundwater in the area was recharged, the greenery returned. The greenery transpired water into the air, cooling the temperature and increasing the humidity. Clouds formed once again and more consistent rains returned to the region. Even in an area as dry and hot as Rajasthan, the water cycle can be recharged and become healthy once again. What's so remarkable about these projects is that they didn't stop with Rajendra and his community. These solutions spread across the region and were taken up by organizations, individuals and villages far and wide. Community-driven decentralized water retention projects like Rajendra's show us ways to heal our water cycle and restore a stable climate. But entrenched economic interests also want to stop it. My grandfather told the water is life. So if you destroy your life, you destroy your life. All big water companies, they are doing the private business of the water. These private companies like Veolia, Suez, Coca-Cola, Nestle, these are the real, real threat for our future, for our life. Because they are destroying the water structure and they are destroying the right of the community and the right of nature. You know the water have equal right of the birds and ants and elephants and women. This water is not for companies. The water for all. This water is a really life of whole planet. But the big company doing the business of that, they are destroying the life of this planet. Water privatization stands in the way of repairing the water cycle. Its private ownership locks communities out of the process of ecosystem repair. If private companies own the rights to the water, like in Australia and the UK, then profit takes priority over the health of the watershed. In a world with an abundance of water, no one needs to buy it. But in a world with scarce water supplies, the business of water is very profitable. When water is privatized, it becomes an economic asset instead of the lifeblood of the community and planet. Large infrastructure projects like dams and reservoirs constructed to protect these economic assets end up hardening the watershed and disrupting the natural flows. Wildlife suffers, communities suffer, and the climate suffers as water is channeled downstream and locked away in concrete and pipes. What's even more alarming is that the companies who privatize water make a profit while destroying ecosystems and keeping water supplies scarce. If nature is God, then water privatization is the deepest crime against our souls. Despite the threat of water privatization, there's a profound opportunity for change. Rajinder's water story is inspiring, and it proves that communities have the power to restore the health of their environment. This is a model for reviving rivers and reversing drought around the world. If poor villages in the desert can restore their local water supply, then imagine what is possible if this work was supported with serious economic resources. The beauty of water restoration is that anyone can have an impact on their water cycle, no matter where they live. Decades of environmental damage can be reversed in a few years, and desolate land can be made fertile once again. If the poorest villages in India can come together to restore their water systems, then the world will be a better place. Then just imagine what you can do in your community. The people of the forest and marginalized can take action. They organize, and they start resonating the nature. The resonation of the nature giving the power to the people of forest and everyone. So now we need some love and respect. This is the need today.