The depletion of groundwater in and around Visakhapatnam—a region preparing to welcome large water-guzzling data centres—is a matter of concern. Despite intermittent rainfall, water tables in several parts of the district reported lows in the July monitoring data. In sharp contrast is the success of Prathap Murugan, an IAS officer and son of a farmer from Virudhunagar who converted 1,200 abandoned borewells for rainwater harvesting in Tamil Nadu’s Thiruvallur district. The central and state governments, too, have a number of schemes to check and recharge groundwater. Yet the government recently admitted in Parliament that despite overall improvement, groundwater has been overdrawn in a few states like Karnataka. Why can’t a successful innovation in one state be replicated in neighbouring ones?