In early 2012, journalist Suhit Kelkar, on behalf of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and the Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust, set out to collect case studies on work relating to water scarcity amelioration in rural Gujarat. He was accompanied by the trusts’ teams on the trip to focus regions in north Gujarat and the southern coast of Saurashtra. Here are his first-hand accounts of how water programmes impact lives of hundreds and thousands of villagers.