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A recent UN report on water has rightly underlined the pressing need for proactive policy to avert a likely crisis in the offing in India given population pressures, pollution and the real possibility of long-term climate change. The report cites expert projections to aver water scarcity and even areas of "severe" stress in the foreseeable future, without sustained reform of India's policy-challenged water economy. And the way ahead is the three-fold task to "hold water where it falls" with extensive rainwater harvesting, tackle widespread water pollution through effective measures nationally, and to put in place norms and incentives for water conservation in agriculture, industry and household usage.