Mr. Singh is known as the ―Waterman of India."He won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership in 2001 for his pioneering work in community-based efforts in water harvesting and water management in the Alwar district of Rajasthan which had been opened up to miners and loggers who had decimated its forests and the watersheds.
Mr. Singh established the NGO, Tarun Bharat Sangh, which was founded in 1975. The NGO based in Kishori-Bhikampura village in Thanagazi tehsil, near the Sariska Tiger Reserve, has been instrumental in fighting the bureaucracy and mining and has helped villagers take charge of water management in their semi-arid area as it lies close to the Thar Desert through the use of johad, rainwater storage tanks, check dams, and other time-tested as well as pathbreaking techniques. Starting from a single village in 1985, over the years the NGO helped build over 8,600 johads and other water conservation structures to collect rainwater for the dry seasons. This initiative brought water back to over 1,000 villages and revived five rivers in Rajasthan, Arvari, Ruparel, Sarsa, Bhagani, and Jahajwali.
Mr. Singh is a member of the National Ganga River Basin Authority under the Ministry of Environment, Government. of India, which was set up in 2009. The local agency was setup to help plan, finance, monitor and coordinate authority for the Ganges under the authority of the Environment (Protection) Act,1986. In 2008, The Guardian named him amongst its list of 50 people who could save the planet.