“Naag river is the identity of Nagpur city, and it is dying. There is no water left except sewage. There is a need of public movement for conservation of Naag river. For this, every citizen should understand his/her responsibility towards water conservation,” said Padma Shri Umashankar Pandey, a prominent water conservation advocate, while talking to ‘The Hitavada’, on Tuesday. “We cannot blame only the Government for poor condition of our water bodies. We should accept our mistakes and understand our responsibility of saving water for future generations,” said Pandey. Suggesting ways to conserve water bodies, Pandey proposed to establish Water University, Water Museum and Water Library in every city to sensitise people about water conservation.

 

“Due to the absence of a dedicated institution globally, we are illiterate in water education in which our ancestors had expertise thousands of years ago.” Pandey’s innovative water conservation model has been successfully implemented in over 470 gram panchayats across Bundelkhand and continues to expand. He remains actively involved in the Bundelkhand region, working to transform water-scarce villages into water-abundant ones. Pandey’s efforts have earned national recognition, including praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister, in his Mann Ki Baat campaign, highlighted Pandey’s water model and even wrote a letter to the heads of states, encouraging the adoption of his model for water conservation. While talking about water business, Padma Shri Pandey claimed, “In ancient time, water was worshipped in India and it is an important source of life. Today, it is the most powerful business in the world and the third World War will also happen due to water only.”

 

Efforts like water conservation and tree plantation at the grassroots level are the most significant contributions towards saving the planet. The Padma Shri awardee also urged people to take proactive steps towards environmental protection. While talking about farmers contribution, Pandey said, “Farmers need to do their bit to save water for which making boundary mounds and planting saplings would be of great help.” “Number of rainy days has fallen from an average 120 days to 41 days and the water table is depleting due to uncontrolled irrigation. It is time farmers opt for our ancient technique of water retention through medh (boundary mound),” he said. “We have 33 crore hectare land in country, out of which we are undertaking agriculture on 18 crore hectare land. Among this, we are irrigating nine crore hectare land with the help of wells, tubewells, etc. and 10 crore hectare land is directly dependent on monsoon. In this situation, we have to depend on monsoon despite path-breaking ancient techniques of conserving water,” Pandey explained.