Magsaysay award-winning conservationist and environmentalist Rajendra Singh on Saturday claimed that the Centre's plan of providing every household in the country with drinking water is "impractical".
Rajendra Singh made this statement after Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat spoke about the government's plans to supply drinking water to all the households in India in the next four years.
"You cannot provide drinking water to all (households) in the country because of our commercial, financial and economical centralised system. That is impractical and not possible," Singh told reporters on the sidelines of the Rotary India Centennial Summit 2020 held here.
The government can supply water to every household in a "contract-driven project" as it has funds, but what the country requires to solve its water woes is a community-driven decentralised water management programme, Singh said.
Singh who in 2015 won the Stockholm Water Prize, known as the Nobel Prize for water, said every citizen of India should understand water management and its efficient use.
"Entire India requires water literacy. Until and unless the country witnesses a movement on water literacy, nobody will be able to solve the problems. People must learn to get the maximum out of minimum use of water, besides conservation," he stated.
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Water is not anybody's private property, he said adding that both the government and people should play their respective roles in conserving and efficiently using water.
"Not only the government, but the society also requires to come forward. It's a common resource of life. We do not have much sources of water left," the conservationist said.
The government's job is to help in conserving and harvesting water while the role of the people is to understand the need of water in life, said Singh who won the Magsaysay award in 2001 for his pioneering work in water management.
"We need to protect and conserve the source of water and until then the dream to supply water through pipelines will not be possible," he added.
Earlier in the same programme, the Union jalshakti minister said only 18 per cent of Indian households, which is only 3 crores, was supplied with water since the British era.
"We are aiming to carry out five times of work in this respect in the next four years. Ten thousand water bodies will be rejuvenated for this purpose," Shekhawat said.
Shekhawat had in June last year said the Centre has set a target of providing clean drinking water to all by 2024 and there are nearly 14 crore households where such water is yet to reach.