ministers of 190 countries , but our environment minister was not present . I told this audience that if the relationship between water and soil is forgotten and there is no water in the soil , the soil will establish its relationship with air and the air will move this dry soil to create a desert . It is , therefore , imperative to establish a relationship between the soil , moisture and air and I gave them the examples of how I had helped rejuvenate seven rivers in Rajasthan . From there I went to Israel to see how the government is using their water resources . In Israel , water has been placed in different categories . C class water is used to grow grains ; B class water is used to grow fruits while A class water is used for growing vegetables and for drinking purposes . In India , A class water is being used to grow sugarcane . Ninety per cent of the water of the Ganga is being used to grow sugarcane . This is criminal . By now , the government should have initiated major steps to change our agricultural crop patterns . With our rain patterns becoming more erratic , the thrust should have been on growing drought resistant crops . I am a firm votary of the fact that the present centralized water management system in our country has proved to be a disaster .
The control of water must be handed over to communities and it has to become decentralized or we will face a water famine throughout the country . Countries which waste water will suffer . After winning the Stockholm Prize for water this year , I undertook a padyatra around the Los Angeles area in California which is facing drought . I was invited by the former Red Indian community now referred to as a reserved community to help them overcome their water crisis . Earlier , 25,000 reserved Indians used to live around the Owens lake area whose water used to feed Los Angeles and other cities in California . Today , their numbers are down to 2,000 . The Owens lake has dried up and the government there has spent a whopping $ 120 billion to spread a network of roads across this Owens lake in order to bring down dust pollution levels . Can you imagine such an expensive remedy ? All I can say is that the Americans are the spoilt race of God . You are being invited across the world to provide water solutions . Why is the Indian government not using your services ? The Indian government is only interested in working with contractors . It does not work for the benefit of the people . Rather , it is a
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Integrated River Basin Management Society