The monsoon is almost here. The southwest monsoon has already touched the Andaman & Nicobar Islands — five days early — and is expected to make landfall in Kerala any day. For most of India, it can't come soon enough. Delhi's Yamuna is running low, water plants are at reduced capacity, and tanker queues have become a daily reality.

But while the headlines track the crisis, something quieter has been happening. Four very different people, in four corners of India, have spent the past year doing the same thing: making sure the rain, when it arrives, has somewhere to go.

After a Severe Water Crisis Hit Varanasi, This IAS Officer Brought Water Back to 39 Villages

Varanasi was running out of water. As CDO, IAS officer Himanshu Nagpal found 700 borewells being dug every year with nothing going back in. Companies were required to........

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