Rajendra Singh, winner of the Stockholm Water Prize.

An award known as “the Nobel Prize for water” has been given to Rajendra Singh, an Indian campaigner who has brought water to 1,000 villages.

The judges of the Stockholm Water Prize say his methods in addition to providing water have also restored soil and rivers, prevented floods and brought back wildlife.

The judges said his technique is simple, cheap and that his ideas should be followed worldwide. The method is actually an ancient Indian technique of rainwater harvesting which involves building low-level banks of earth to hold back the flow of water in the wet season which allows water to seep into the ground for future use.

Mr Singh first trained as a medic however when working in a rural village in Rajasthan he realised the greatest need was not health care but drinking water.

Groundwater had been used by farmers, and as water disappeared, crops failed, and then forests, rivers and wildlife receded and people left for the towns.

“When we started our work, we were only looking at the drinking water crisis and how to solve that,” Mr Singh said.

“Today our aim is higher. This is the century of exploitation, pollution and encroachment. To stop all this, to convert the war on water into peace, that is my life’s goal.”

Since Singh began working in the region 20 years ago, 8,600 johads (rain water storage tanks) and other structures to collect water have been built. Water has been brought back to roughly 1,000 villages across the state, the organisation claimed hence his nickname “the Water Man of India”.

The Stockholm International Water Institute, who presented the prize, said Rajendra’s lessons were tremendously important as climate change alters weather patterns around the world.

Torgny Holmgren the director of Stockholm International Water Institute said: “In a world where demand for freshwater is booming, we will face a severe water crisis within decades if we do not learn how to better take care of our water. Mr Singh is a beacon of hope.”

In its citation, the judges say: “Today’s water problems cannot be solved by science or technology alone. They are human problems of governance, policy, leadership, and social resilience.

“Rajendra Singh’s life work has been in building social capacity to solve local water problems through participatory action, empowerment of women, linking indigenous know-how with modern scientific and technical approaches and upending traditional patterns of development and resource use.”