India, Sept. 14 -- This monsoon, Punjab is drowning. Rivers have spilled over, embankments have broken, and villages lie submerged. Families are stranded on rooftops, fields resemble lakes, and relief camps overflow. Yet the crisis is not confined to rural districts. The tricity of Chandigarh, Mohali, and Panchkula, sitting at the heart of this ecosystem, shares the same fate. The water that devastates fields upstream clogs drains, weakens infrastructure and threatens the canals that sustain our lives. It may feel unimaginable today, with floodwaters still surging, but Punjab's tragedy has always been one of extremes. The same land that reels under excess in August often thirsts by October. This swing from deluge to deficit is not an accident - it is the rhythm of mismanaged water, amplified by climate volatility. The irony is stark. The Sutlej, Ravi and Beas overflow today, swallowing homes and crops. But once they retreat, they leave behind silted fields and aquifers long pumped dry. Farmers, already devastated by flood loss, then spend heavily on irrigation for the rabi season. Floods and drought are not opposites in Punjab - they are two faces of the same neglect. This instability also weakens food security. Punjab, India's "breadbasket," grows much of the nation's wheat and rice. When its land suffers such violent swings, it is not just local farmers but the entire country's food supply at risk. Traditional ponds, village tanks, and wetlands - once buffers against both flood and drought-have been erased or encroached upon. In the tricity, stormwater drains are designed only to flush rainwater away, not to hold or recharge it. Urban planning treats rain as waste to discard, not a resource to capture. As architects, we encounter this gap firsthand. A client in Punjab may shrug off rainwater harvesting with, "Madam, rules here don't demand it." In Chandigarh, bylaws are stricter, but enforcement is reduced to formality - checklists and certificates. Mohali and Panchkula, with relentless real estate growth, fare no better. The result is predictable: floods today, water stress tomorrow. But, what if we caught the rain? Imagine if every rooftop in the tricity - from schools and hospitals to apartments and malls-captured rainwater. Imagine if Punjab's ponds and choes were revived as living sponges. The impact would be profound: less flooding, replenished aquifers and resilience against scarcity. These solutions are neither futuristic nor costly. What is missing is urgency - and the willingness to see water harvesting and recharge not as "extras" but as essentials. The tricity's dependence on shared water systems is inescapable. Chandigarh relies on the Bhakra canal, itself vulnerable to fluctuating flows. Mohali's unchecked real estate boom adds concrete but little groundwater recharge. Panchkula's expanding footprint strains ecosystems that once absorbed excess rain. To believe floods "belong" only to Punjab's villages is to ignore that our taps flow from the same source. Water is a shared lifeline, and it demands shared responsibility. The tricity needs a common ethic, not piecemeal fixes. That means: Mandatory recharge structures in every development, beyond token paperwork. Restoration of ponds and wetlands as natural sponges. Cross-border collaboration among states, municipalities, and citizens. Water literacy taught early, so conservation becomes second nature. Punjab's disaster today is a humanitarian tragedy - but also a warning. Unless we rethink how we capture, store, and value water, we will remain trapped in calamity's loop. The choice is clear: continue oscillating between flood and drought, or transform the monsoon into a reservoir for resilience. What we build, how we build, and how we plan - in Punjab and the tricity alike - will decide whether future generations inherit only extremes, or the chance at balance....