The rains have descended on us, already wreaking havoc and threatening the possibility of floods and cyclonic conditions. And therein continues the cyclic pattern of worrying – first about droughts and heatwaves and then about too much rain and flooding – and then forgetting about both until it all happens once again. There is a water crisis in South Asia. It is imminent, it is real, and it will affect millions of our neighbours, especially those in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nepal. In fact, 20 of India’s major cities including New Delhi, Chennai, and Bangalore are expected to run out of groundwater by 2020. That’s next year – just five months from now. Water is intrinsic to life and its scarcity leads to food shortages, poor sanitation, and the rise of disease, and ultimately worsens living conditions, triggering greater poverty. What the region needs is better infrastructure planning, sustainable utilisation of water resources, employment of better data and technology in water management, civic awareness and participation in securing water resources, and of course, stronger policy and governance frameworks and the political will to implement those. All that may fit in one sentence, but it is an expansive requirement that will take decades to implement fully – time that we do not have the luxury of. Many of the region’s agriculture methods are entirely dependent on monsoon patterns, which in recent years have become more and more unpredictable, thereby affecting timing and yields. As the world gets warmer and unplanned construction continues unabated, groundwater too begins depleting, making things worse for the preferred crops of South Asia that guzzle groundwater; paddy cultivation in particular is a water intensive industry. Sri Lanka must have a solid plan to protect groundwater sources; 80% of rural homes are supplied by groundwater, but we don’t have strong controls on domestic groundwater withdrawal. Growing populations and burgeoning (poorly planned) infrastructure result in a far higher rate of water withdrawal than can reasonably be replenished. That’s why it is also important to bring in better methods to harvest rainwater and treat waste water to transform it into potable water to balance the over extraction of groundwater. And then there is tree planting, a long-term solution. Business must do more, on the one hand to ensure that their own operations focus on protecting water resources, and on the other to create civic awareness, thereby giving leadership to community-level initiatives designed to save the precious resource. Beyond that, it is essential that the business community uses its influence to generate a dialogue on climate change and the looming disasters. The private sector must play a meaningful role not just as part of its social obligation, but equally importantly to ensure its own sustenance. Businesses can be hard hit by water shortages. In Chennai, for example, the water shortage has forced some hotels and restaurants to shut down operations, and in the tech hub Bangalore, businesses and residents are forced to purchase from a private mafia that trucks water into the city at exorbitant prices. The current shape of local politics is about quick fixes that target the very next election, so a strong policy framework on water security is perhaps too much to ask for in the short term. But citizen-driven action is essential and it’s high time the conversation moved away from just a handful of environmentalists and academics to encompass a greater cross section of the community. The ebb and flow of floods and droughts will only worsen unless we come up with sensible solutions that are cohesive, sustainable, and effective.