New Delhi, Nov 20 (IANS): States need to take steps in advance to prepare for the 2015 monsoon so that maximum water can be stored in those few months, Rural Development Minister Birendra Singh said Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's idea that timely and advance preparation can enable a significant increase in capacity to store water in a multitude of check dams, ponds and tanks in the country is very practical, Birendra Singh said while addressing delegates from all the states after inaugurating a two-day workshop on 'Construction and Desilting of Checkdams - Water Harvesting Structures' here.

"This will result in two important things - improving the storage and thus rejuvenating these structures as well as reducing floods at the local level," he said.

The minister said that water conservation and harvesting needs to be a peoples' mass movement.

All sections of society are required to work in a coordinated manner to efficiently harvest water. Efficient and scientific water harvesting is the first step towards revolutionizing water use in the country, he added.