India is increasingly facing a troubling cycle of drought and intense rainfall. While dry spells deplete groundwater and damage crops, sudden heavy rain causes flooding, erosion and the loss of valuable water as runoff. We need to shift from crisis management to year-round water management. Restoring traditional water bodies, promoting rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharge, strengthening watershed development and providing timely weather-based advisories to farmers can improve resilience. We cannot control the monsoon, but we can control how we prepare for its extremes of drought and intense rainfall. Every drop of rain should be treated as a resource to be conserved, not merely a hazard to be managed.
KR GAGAN, Vasco
