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Presents India's Water Warriors

Indias Water Warriors

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About India's Water Warriors

World's largest positive and solutions-based content-driven impact platform, The Better India presents ‘India’s Water Warriors,’ an initiative to honor the unsung heroes of India for their exemplary work in water conservation, harvesting, rejuvenation, restoration of water bodies, water crisis management, water planning, sewage treatment, etc.

Why Water Warriors?

Water is a commodity as precious as gold in India. We make up 18% of the world’s population, but only 4% of its water resources, making our nation among the most water-stressed in the world. Climate change is likely to exacerbate this pressure on water resources, even as the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts in the country increase. This is why, for over a decade, The Better India has constantly been shining the spotlight on India's greatest #WaterWarriors.These are individuals who bring people together to solve water problems, seek solutions that are inclusive and equitable, go “above and beyond,” never give up, and inspire and help others to make a difference.This award will formally recognize their invaluable contribution.

How to Nominate?

Fill in the simple form below to nominate yourself OR individuals you know such as leaders from organizations, startup founders, or anyone you think worthy of recognition for their efforts towards water management.

* Nominees can be of any age but have to be Indian citizens.

You may nominate more than one person. For each nomination, fill up the form afresh.

India's Water Warrior Award Finalists

Winner

Dr. Nimal Raghavan

Dr. Nimal Raghavan

Age: 35

Has restored 118 water bodies all across Tamil Nadu, and benefitted more than 40 lakh individuals.

Left his job in Dubai after witnessing the Gaja cyclone in India and decided to work for farmers.

Dr Devaraja Reddy  NJ

Dr. Devaraja Reddy NJ

Age: 59

Served as Ground Water Diviner for 35 years.

Worked for rainwater harvesting, borewell recharging and groundwater rejuvenation using modern technologies.

Ravindra Ulangwar

Ravindra Ulangwar

Age: 55

Led projects like the Narmada-Malwa-Gambhir Link project in Madhya Pradesh, Saurashtra Branch Canal Pumping system of Sardar Sarovar Project in Gujarat.

Co-Director of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Rotary International District 3131.

Mahesh Panpalia

Mahesh Panpalia

Age: 55

Have constructed 130 nadis, a traditional water harvesting structure.

Have built 200+ water tanks for clean and safe drinking water.

Avani Mohan Singh

Avani Mohan Singh

Age: 53

Provided solar-based potable drinking water through 24x7 water supply schemes by adopting Integrated Water Resource Management Approach in more than 1550 villages.

Promotes sensitization, training, and capacity-building tools with communities, NGO staff, government officials, and other stakeholders to take this as a movement for water security through Jal Sanchay and Vriksharopan Abhiyaan.

Jury's favourite winner

Asha S

Asha S

Age: 50

Successfully recharged drinking water borewells in 13 villages and installed a rainwater harvesting program in three government schools.

Rejuvenated 2 lakes and constructed sewage and drainages in 10 villages to increase the flow of water to the lakes.

Watch Journey of India's Water Warriors

Asha S
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Mahesh Panpalia
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Ravindra Ulangwar
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Dr. Devaraja Reddy NJ
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Avani Mohan Singh
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What will the winner get?

Award Certificate
Award Citation
Special Coverage
Exclusive Collaboration

Process

Nomination will start on 9 August 2022 and end on 15 August 2022. Once the nominations are closed, we will shortlist the candidates based on predefined selection criteria. The shortlisted nominees will be sent to the jury members for evaluation where they will select ten nominees to go to the final round. Once we have our ten top candidates, there will be audience voting from 23 August 2022 to 28 August 2022 through the TBI microsite where our readers will choose India’s Water Warrior. The winner will be announced at a live virtual event on 1 September 2022.

Selection of India’s Water Warrior award will be based on:

01 Positive impact created
02 Tenure of work/ action/ duration
03 Scale/ No. of individuals benefited
04 Frugality & cost-effectiveness of solutions
05 Scalability/ possibility to implement elsewhere
06 Innovation used in the implementation of ideas
07 Sustenance of change through the establishment of systems, processes, and people

Meet the Jury

Arun Krishnamurthy

Arun Krishnamurthy is an Indian environmental activist who has initiated the campaign of cleaning various lakes across the country. He quit his job at Google to dedicate his time to the cause and started Environmentalist Foundation of India (EFI) in 2011. Based in Chennai, EFI has branches in 17 places including Hyderabad, Delhi and Coimbatore.

With EFI, Arun has successfully cleaned 169 lakes. He was chosen as one of the five people for the prestigious Rolex Awards for Enterprise in 2012 for scientific lake restoration in Chennai.

Anuradha Parekh

Anuradha Kedia, Co-founder of The Better India comes from a diverse academic and professional background. Post a civil engineering degree with three gold medals, Anuradha went on to complete her management degree from Indian School of Business, where she built her strong foundation in marketing, product development and strategy and honed her entrepreneurial skills.

In 2008, Anuradha co-founded The Better India along with her husband, Dhimant, with a vision to curate and distribute citizen action driven positive stories that showcased the stories of changemakers, innovators, and unsung heroes in and around Bangalore. Anuradha soon realized that the stories on The Better India easily cut through the clutter of news and served to inspire and motivate people. As the content head, Anuradha is a firm believer in the power of content and is an expert in harnessing it to mobilize communities by nurturing empathy, inspiring action and transforming lives. Large scale positive impact has always been at the heart of what they do, and to take that up a notch, they recently launched.

S. Vishwanath

S. Vishwanath is a Civil Engineer and an Urban Planner. He has 36 years of experience in the water, waste-water and sanitation sector helping design rainwater harvesting, aquifer recharge, wastewater recycling and ecosan systems. He is an Adjunct Professor and teaches a course on the theme – “Water” at the Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. He is a Trustee with the Biome Environmental Trust and Director at Biome Environmental Solutions, an Ecological Architecture practising firm.

Additionally, he is a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board as well as the TAC, Jal Jeevan Mission programme of the RDPR Department of Govt. of Karnataka. He has been a member of various expert committee which helped formulate the rainwater harvesting policy and law for Bengaluru, the waste-water policy for Karnataka and the water policy for Karnataka, drafted by the Karnataka Knowledge Commission.

Frequently Asked Questions

Our Jury is working with a meticulously designed scoring process through which they will look at a wide range of attributes. These include details on

  • Positive impact created
  • Sustenance of change through the establishment of systems, processes & people
  • Scale/ No. of individuals benefited
  • Tenure of work/ action/ duration
  • Innovation used in the implementation of ideas
  • Frugality and cost-effectiveness of solutions
  • Scalability/ possibility to implement elsewhere

The Better India will collate the scores of the jury on shortlisted entries with the votes that we receive from our audience members. The winner will be announced based on specific weightage given to the scores and votes.

India’s Water Warrior will receive the following:

  1. A certificate
  2. A citation
  3. Special coverage on The Better India for the initiative
  4. Opportunity to develop a course on The Better Academy
  5. Featured listing on The Better India impact listing space *
  6. Guest invite for The Better India Summit 2022-23 *

* Terms and Conditions Apply

No, The award is open only to those who are currently residing in India.

No, We understand that efforts can be collaborative. However, India’s Water Warriors Award will be awarded to individuals only. These individuals may be a part of an organization, either as a founder/driver of the initiative, or even implementing work on the ground.

Yes. However, please send in only one nomination per person.

email us at

Email your queries: events@thebetterindia.com