Data from NASA show that 21 of the 37 large aquifers around the world are currently experiencing serious water shortages. As the population continues to grow and water use increases for agriculture and industry, this trend will only continue to worsen.

Rajendra Singh, known as the "Water Man of India," believes community efforts can help these already depleted aquifers recover. For the past 32 years, he has carried out community-based water collection and management work with his NGO Tarun Bharat Sangh in the Alwar district of Rajasthan and the arid semi-desert areas of northwest India. These efforts earned him the Magsaysay Prize in 2001 and the Stockholm Water Prize in 2015.

The following is our interview with him (edited):

You have made many criticisms of the country’s top-down water management model that focuses on infrastructure construction. Is it necessary to implement the community-led water management model you support in all countries? Is government and corporate support necessary?

The government generally does not support community proposals and prefers to support contractors. Governments always like projects that sound grandiose, to combat desertification or revitalize the landscape: dams, canals, centralized irrigation systems, drinking water pipelines. They built new canals when the old ones ran dry. There was a lack of community involvement in these projects, and the work was all given to contractors. This is a contractor-led democracy, not a people-led democracy.

Last year you launched the World Water Peace Walks. What role do you think water plays in promoting world peace?

If we don't do something about the current water crisis, World War III will soon come, a war about water. The walking activity is to arouse people's attention. This year we have visited 17 countries, 9 of which have large numbers of displaced people. Many people from the Middle East and Africa migrated to Europe due to lack of water, and this migration brought conflict, tension and terrorism. Where terrorism thrives there is often a lack of water. Take Syria, for example. They had a very good agricultural foundation a long time ago, but then the dam built by Türkiye destroyed everything. The experience in Libya is similar. If we want a secure future, we have to start saving water.

What role can regulations play in protecting water resources? Do you think privatizing water resources is a good way to increase their efficiency?

If we really want to change relevant laws, the first thing that comes to mind should be the rights of the river itself, the rights of nature, and then the rights of humans to use water resources. People don't have this mindset now, and we need a new legal framework to ensure that rivers are natural, that the water flowing in them is clean, and that there are green banks on both sides of the river to prevent erosion and siltation. Only in this way can we ensure that the river is "healthy". Only when the river is healthy can people be healthy.

Powerful corporations have created a water market - they pollute our rivers and make us pay for our drinking water. They say that only high prices can effectively manage water resources, but this view is wrong. In the area where I live, the local river management agency has rules and regulations that everyone follows and everyone has enough water. Community-led sustainable water management has been around for thousands of years, and no one has put a price on water in that time. So why do we put a price on water now? Because now companies make the rules. Privatization is not the answer, and pricing water is not the answer.

The author of this article is from India and is a policy innovation journalism fellow at the Carnegie Council

(Translator: Wang Mengyao; Editor: Chen Shenglong)