Today, the network has managed to promote rainwater harvesting to such an extent that traditional techniques of water harvesting is suddenly occupying primary place on the agenda of many NGOs and government organisations working in drought-prone areas. CSE also tabled the findings of its report on water harvesting in its fourth citizen's report last year, entitled Dying Wisdom.

``The President, K R Narayanan, was so impressed with the potential of rainwater harvesting that he asked the officials of Rashtrapati Bhavan to harvest rainwater in the 133 sq km President's estate,'' says CSE director Anil Agarwal, in a letter addressed to parliamentarians, coaxing them to introduce traditional water harvesting systems in their constituencies.The water harvesting network of CSE has more than 300 NGOs from various parts of the country. The cell helps people who want to initiate water harvesting in their areas, apartment blocks and homes by connecting them with the right NGOs in their area. The cell also has an engineer who supervises and monitors projects in Delhi.

``The CSE building itself has a rainwater harvesting system and with this year's rain, we already have enough drinking water for all the staff for the rest of the year,'' says Indira Khurana, coordinator of the water harvesting cell.

Agarwal says the recent droughts in Gujarat and Rajasthn are truly `human-made' or `government-made' disasters. To bolster this argument, he says there have been two major shifts in water management. One is that individuals and communities have steadily given over their role almost completely to the state, and the second that the simple technology of using rainwater has declined and in its place, exploitation of rivers and groundwater through dams and tubewells has become the key resource of water.``Given the fact that India is one of the most well-endowed nations in the world in terms of annual average rainfall, there is no reason why it should suffer from drought. The important lesson that we should learn from the current crisis is how to drought-proof the nation in the years to come-a task that can be easily accomplished in less than a decade if the country puts its mind to it,'' Agarwal extols.

Community based rainwater harvesting has the potential to drought-proof the entire country, CSE claims. A survey conducted by the organisation in December last in some drought-affected areas of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, found all those villages which had undertaken rainwater harvesting and watershed development had no drinking water problem and even had some water to irrigate crops. But other villages were desperate for water and many were planning to migrate when summer hit them.

The rainwater harvesting movement has not been restricted to the rural areas alone. The CSE water harvesting cell has been working on plans for some apartments in Vasant Kunj, Delhi Public School in RK Puram, Delhi, and even some government and NGO buildings.

The CSE has created the slogan, `Making Water Everybody's Business', for its water harvesting cell and is hoping that its drought-proof campign will gather momentum rapidly.