India, Oct. 24 -- Blue skies turning to grim grey is an indication of the change of season. From a period of fresh air to deadly smog. This year, the southwest monsoon withdrew from the Indian landmass on October 16, and the northeast monsoon arrived on the same day, ahead of its normal schedule on the eastern coast. An early onset and prolonged monsoon season scored an extra eight per cent of average rainfall with 937.2 mm of recorded rainfall from above the normal average of 868 mm.

But what did we do with this extra 8% of surplus fresh water from the skies? For a severely water-stressed country (we are 18% global population with 4% fresh water resources), how much water did we conserve? After all, rainwater is a critical natural resou...