Panaji
Speaking during an interaction with journalists in the capital on Monday, Dr Singh said that their mission is to interact with school and college students in colleges along the way as well as to learn from traditional communities the techniques of water conservation.
"More than teaching we wish to be learning from traditional communities as well as share our knowledge of what we have done with villages in Rajasthan," Dr Singh said.
Dr Singh is a highly respected social activist working with water and river issues in India.
In 1985 in rural Rajasthan, when he went there to introduce modern education and medicine, the villagers made clear their primary need was for water.
Harnessing the villagers' capacities and their traditional wisdom, Johads (small earthen dams to trap water) were quickly built and the first fruits of these labours were realised in the very next rains when the nature began to flow again.
The area dramatically transformed, progressively becoming more productive, and healthier. Rajendra and Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), the organization he chairs to further this work, began in each village by persuading the Village Council, a traditional body comprised of representatives from each household, where decisions are taken by consensus, to contribute labor and materials towards building and maintaining the johads.
Over 30 years of working in that region, rivulets, dry for eighty years, were revived. He helped the villagers build several thousand Johads at strategic points.
Dr Singh also interacted with activists in Goa and is expected to launch his yatra on Tuesday. His yatra will involve a stop over at Bijapur in Karnataka where there will be a three day programme on water issues.
