But when they switched the source of water supply from human to the celestial, things were totally different. The same 1,40,000-litre storage tank -  whose capacity could meet the entire fire-fighting needs of the Station for a year -  was filled in hardly 3 days of rain.

It was the awareness campaign run by Malayala Manorama newspaper that had made the Station Officer think laterally - or was it vertically?  As he shared the idea of rain water harvesting with his staff, they too turned out to be willing stakeholders in the experiment with rain. Together they decided not to waste a single drop of water falling on their terrace.

All the downtake pipes from the terrace were sealed except one, where the female coupling of a defunct delivery hose was connected and tied in position. 2 other hoses were joined to this, to carry the water further over a distance of 50m to the storage tank. Within 2 or 3 days of rain, the almost empty tank had been filled to overflowing. Approximately 31 tankers of water has already been stored in the operation that commenced on May 18, 2004.

Convinced of the efficiency of the method, the Station wrote to its higher office about the experiment. The Divisional Officer visited the Station in person and appreciated the good work done by the team there. And the Officer has instructed the other Stations under his jurisdiction to carry out rain water harvesting schemes in the same Gandhi Nagar model.