[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-89331-en":3,"doc-seo-89331-105":31,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":93},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":28,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":29,"read_time":30},89331,3848291630094,"Emma Wilson","https://eur-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45",10,"Lifestyle","From Arid Lands to Well-Watered Fields - Watermen Stories","From Arid Lands to Well-Watered Fields follows two “Watermen” in different countries who respond to urgent community needs for water. The narrative traces Rajendra Singh’s decision to stay in rural Rajasthan and revive abandoned pond systems through persistent digging and collective effort, leading to restored aquifers, flowing rivers, and improved farming. It then highlights Zephaniah Phiri’s water-harvesting experiments in Zimbabwe, transforming designated dryland into a wetland agroecosystem by contour ridges, infiltration pits, and tree-based soil stabilization.","From Arid Lands to Well-Watered Fields  \nlevel: intermediate  \nEnglish Agriculture  \nFrom Arid Lands to Well-Watered Fields  \nAdapted from articles freely available on the internet and with special thanks to Minni Jain, Director of The Flow Partnership for her inspiring talk at the NJPN Conference in July 2021  \nIllustrated by MissionAssist  \nEnglish  \nBerkshire, England  \nCopyright © 2021, MissionAssist  \n[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)  \nYou are free to make commercial use of this work. You may adapt and add to this work. You must keep the copyright and credits for authors, illustrators, etc.  \nAdapted from articles freely available on the internet and with special thanks to Minni Jain, Director of The Flow Partnership for her inspiring talk at the NJPN Conference in July 2021  \nIllustrated by MissionAssist  \nThis edition published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by MissionAssist  \nPermission is granted for non-profit reproduction and other use of the MissionAssist materials.  \nFrom Arid Lands to Well-Watered Fields  \nThis is the story of two men, in two different countries, who saw their own and other people’s need for water — and did something about it.  \nRajendra Singh  \nOur first ‘Waterman’ is Rajendra Singh, who was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi to take an interest in the needs of his fellow countrymen and women in a poor, dry area of India. He began by thinking that what they needed most was education, and perhaps some Indian traditional medicine too.  \nWith four equally enthusiastic friends, Rajendra took a country bus all the way to the end of its route. After finding somewhere to stay, they set about trying to help the villagers in this dry and remote part of Rajasthan. But after a while, all his friends became disillusioned with their lack of progress and decided to return to the city.  \nRajendra, however, chose to stay. One day he happened to meet one of the village elders, who told him that what they really needed was not education or medicine, important though these were, but WATER.  \nRajendra looked round at the arid landscape and wondered how he could possibly help to achieve what seemed an impossible goal. But the oldman promised to show him how this could be done, and told him to come back the next day with a spade.  \nThe next day, with a borrowed spade, Rajendra duly met the old man again and they set off to find a suitable spot to start digging. This spot seemed just as dry and hopeless as the rest of the surrounding land, but the old man persuaded Rajendra to dig there all the same. He knew that long ago, before boreholes became the smart new way to obtain water for community use, there had been a pond there. Over the years the underground aquifer had fallen lower and lower and the boreholes were no longer supplying water. It was time to revive the pond!  \nOf course, the villagers all knew what was happening and came out to watch. None of them thought that Rajendra – a city boy, after all – would persevere long enough to do any good. They were sure he would go back to join his friends in the city. But Rajendra kept digging and digging, and at last he found a small quantity of water in the ground. With the villagers joining in, Rajendra widened the walls of this tiny puddle and the next time it rained the pond began to fill with water.  \nThe pond began to fill.  \nThis encouraged everyone to start digging more ponds around the village and with help from the monsoon, they now had a secure supply of water close at hand. Gradually these ponds started to restore the underground aquifer, and after five years, a local river began once more to flow. Farmers were able to irrigate their land and their crops began to yield much better harvests. It even became possible for the villagers to start the process of reforestation on what had previously been barren land.  \nAs water returned to the landscape so too did plants and trees.  \nThis local success soon caught the","cbCaia6y75cpqQOK","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaia6y75cpqQOK","pdf",1021328,5,1,20,"English","en",105,"# From Arid Lands to Well-Watered Fields\n## Waterman 1: Rajendra Singh\n## Waterman 2: Zephaniah Phiri","[{\"question\":\"What problem does the story focus on?\",\"answer\":\"The story focuses on communities’ urgent need for water in dry, remote areas and the actions taken to restore water availability.\"},{\"question\":\"How did Rajendra Singh help revive water in Rajasthan?\",\"answer\":\"He persisted in digging to revive a long-lost pond; when the villagers joined in, rain filled the pond, expanded it, and over time restored the aquifer and a local river.\"},{\"question\":\"What methods did Zephaniah Phiri use for water harvesting in Zimbabwe?\",\"answer\":\"He modified contour ridges to create sand traps and water infiltration pits, aiming to reduce erosion and capture rainfall and runoff for farming.\"}]","From Arid Lands to Well-Watered Fields - Watermen Stories | PDF",1784282930,31,{"code":4,"msg":32,"data":33},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":34,"title":13,"keywords":35,"description":14,"schema_data":36,"social_meta":88,"head_meta":90,"extra_data":92,"updated_unix":29},"from-arid-lands-to-well-watered-fields-watermen-stories","",{"@graph":37,"@context":87},[38,55,70],{"@type":39,"itemListElement":40},"BreadcrumbList",[41,45,49,52],{"item":42,"name":43,"@type":44,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":46,"name":47,"@type":44,"position":48},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":50,"name":12,"@type":44,"position":51},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/lifestyle/",3,{"item":53,"name":13,"@type":44,"position":54},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/from-arid-lands-to-well-watered-fields-watermen-stories/89331/",4,{"url":53,"name":13,"@type":56,"author":57,"headline":13,"publisher":59,"fileFormat":62,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":63,"datePublished":64,"encodingFormat":62,"isAccessibleForFree":65,"interactionStatistic":66},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":58},"Person",{"url":42,"name":60,"@type":61},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-08-04","2026-07-17",true,{"@type":67,"interactionType":68,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":69},"ViewAction",{"@type":71,"mainEntity":72},"FAQPage",[73,79,83],{"name":74,"@type":75,"acceptedAnswer":76},"What problem does the story focus on?","Question",{"text":77,"@type":78},"The story focuses on communities’ urgent need for water in dry, remote areas and the actions taken to restore water availability.","Answer",{"name":80,"@type":75,"acceptedAnswer":81},"How did Rajendra Singh help revive water in Rajasthan?",{"text":82,"@type":78},"He persisted in digging to revive a long-lost pond; when the villagers joined in, rain filled the pond, expanded it, and over time restored the aquifer and a local river.",{"name":84,"@type":75,"acceptedAnswer":85},"What methods did Zephaniah Phiri use for water harvesting in Zimbabwe?",{"text":86,"@type":78},"He modified contour ridges to create sand traps and water infiltration pits, aiming to reduce erosion and capture rainfall and runoff for farming.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":53,"og:type":89,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":60,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":91,"canonical":53},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":94},[95,99,103,107,111,116,121,126,130,133,135],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":96,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":98},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":48,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":100,"show_sort_weight":101,"slug":102},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":54,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":104,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":106},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":113,"show_sort_weight":114,"slug":115},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":118,"show_sort_weight":119,"slug":120},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":122,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":123,"show_sort_weight":124,"slug":125},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":22,"slug":129},9,"Religion & Spirituality","religion-spirituality",{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":131,"show_sort_weight":22,"slug":132},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":134},"lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":20,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]