Water, Sanitation and environment are the sectors, where significant contributions have been made.

The “Catch The Rain” campaign, with the tagline “Catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls”, picked up by the Hon’ble PM and launched on March 22, 2021, as “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch The Rain” by him, earned Asok Kumar the sobriquet of “Rain Man of India”. Catching the rainwater and saving it is one of the most economical, people-friendly ways to solve many water-related issues in the country. This drive to push “decentralized storage” or “crowd saving” of rainwater during monsoon helps in increasing the water table, soil moisture, and the availability of water in summer and mitigates the impact of floods, particularly in urban areas. Increased water table also reduces the power of the motors and the energy required for pumping out the water, thereby reducing carbon emission.

From the 1,40,000 plus Individual Sanitary Latrines built with people’s participation in Nizamabad in 2002, a pioneering and successful effort, much before the Swatch Bharat Abhiyan in 2014,

to the initiative of Habitation-wise drinking water committees in Nizamabad,

to the toilets built in 1000 schools in Nizamabad in 2002,

to the Daily Water Supply in the core city of Hyderabad in 2008, after a gap of 24 years,

to completing the 90 MLD Krishna Phase- II Drinking Water Project and starting the work on the 180 MLD Godavari Drinking Water Project to augment drinking water resources to Hyderabad city,

to protecting and restoring a number of lakes in Hyderabad city,

to constructing over 200 mini tanks and mini lift irrigation schemes and promoting solar pumps in tribal areas of Bhadrachalam in 1996-98 period with the total participation of tribal people,

to setting up of many Sewerage Treatment Plants (STPs) in Hyderabad as Vice Chairman Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and then as Managing Director, Hyderabad Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Works(HMWSSB), and later under the Namami Gange Program or National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) starting of the works on STPs and ETPs in many cities and towns on the basin of Ganga and its tributaries,

to organizing “one day two lakh tree plantation on 26 July 2004” in Hyderabad to massive tree plantation programs in Hyderabad and Kadapa districts,

to setting up of India Smart Grid Forum to work on smart-grids in the power sector to reduce carbon emissions, 

to conceiving and organizing “Water Talks” and “Water Tech Talks” under National Water Mission,

it has been a long but fulfilling haul in the Water, Sanitation and Environment sectors, rightly earning the Jal Mitra award in Andhra Pradesh and the moniker “The Rain man of India”.