One of many largest nightmares for the residents of Chennai was on 19 June 2019 when the town was out of ingesting water. Referred to as ‘Day Zero’, it was one of many worst water crises confronted by the town because the municipality ran out of ingesting water.
Across the similar time, Prashant Sharma, a programme supervisor in an IT agency, occurred to be visiting his in-laws in Chennai together with his spouse and two-year-old son. The apprehensive father needed to scramble for water for over per week to offer for his toddler’s wants.
He recollects how folks rushed in the direction of the water tankers and paid additional to make sure that they acquired it. Nevertheless, the water they acquired was usually salty and unclean which wanted to be boiled a number of occasions earlier than getting used.
This incident left him spending days looking for options.
“I questioned about what we may do. Since water is a finite useful resource, how may we make its utilization extra round?” Prashant shares with The Higher India.
The answer the 50-year-old discovered was utilizing greywater, which is principally home wastewater from wash basins, washing machines, showers, kitchens.
A DowntoEarth report estimates that India generates about 31 billion litres of greywater on a regular basis.
The sustainability fanatic discovered that recycling greywater in faculties, faculties, houses may very well be a viable answer that would assist us tide over the water disaster sooner or later. This recycled greywater can be utilized to recharge groundwater, water crops, clear, in landscaping and gardening, in the bathroom flush and extra.
Together with his concept in place, Prashant give up his company profession and based a non-profit referred to as ‘Optimistic Motion For Youngster And Earth Basis’ in 2022. By means of a sustainable and pure recycling technique developed by Prashant, he claims that the colleges in Delhi and Uttarakhand are at this time saving six lakh litres of freshwater yearly.
‘We are able to’t afford to be passive spectators anymore’
Whereas Prashant was earlier working in IT corporations in India and London, his tryst with sustainability and waste water recycling began in 2010. He turned actively concerned in sustainability initiatives in his borough (native authorities).
He was the designated sustainability champion of the world, the place he performed consciousness and waste segregation campaigns, recycling initiatives, and taught folks how you can compost, amongst different actions.
He continued this work alongside together with his job in several corporations together with Shell, IBM, Accenture, British Petroleum.
The 2019 water disaster and his unhealthy expertise made him begin searching for sustainable options. On the similar time, he additionally realised that company life wasn’t for him anymore.
“Working for a paycheck wasn’t chopping it for me anymore. If you attain a sure degree of monetary safety, it is best to contemplate giving again to society, and for me, that was greywater recycling,” Prashant shares.
He additionally shares that local weather change has reached a stage the place “we will now now not afford to be a passive spectator to the carnage being accomplished to our surroundings.”
“Water is clearly one of many largest issues on the earth at this time. I noticed firsthand in Chennai how determined folks can turn out to be when there’s no water. I additionally visited plenty of villages after 2019 and checked out methods I may contribute. I discovered my calling in water conservation,” shares Prashant.
Throughout his analysis, he discovered that greywater was one thing that may very well be recycled.
“If 100 litres of water are being launched, virtually 70 litres of that’s greywater, i.e. non-faecal water with minimal impurities, which will be simply recycled. City India generates about 70 litres of greywater per individual per day, however in virtually one hundred pc instances, this greywater is just blended with sewage,” he provides.
Often what occurs is that this greywater will get blended with the sewage water and is shipped to Sewage Therapy Vegetation (STP) or simply discharged overtly, impacting livelihoods, crop productiveness and a rise in vector borne illnesses, explains Prashant.
He provides that STPs are one of the polluting industries, “consuming about three p.c of the world’s power.” Subsequently, recycling greywater close to its supply is sustainable and a potential answer to resolve the worldwide water disaster. The DownToEarth report additionally states that “reuse of greywater for lavatory flushing alone can scale back the freshwater demand by 10-20 p.c.”
Greywater recycling can also be quite simple, beginning with utilizing cooking water to water crops, and for flushing. It additionally requires no electrical energy or chemical substances. It treats the waste water at supply, making it a decentralised answer.
As soon as the thought was set, Prashant labored on a nature-based answer to recycle greywater- Constructed Wetlands (CW), that are constructed utilizing pure filter supplies like activated charcoal, stone, grit, sand.
Constructed wetlands are man-made wastewater recycling techniques which resemble pure wetlands in therapy.
“Wastewater is recycled by means of pure processes involving soil, vegetation, and microbial communities. We use pure filter supplies and crops which are simple to combine
aesthetically into the present buildings and are scalable,” explains Prashant.
He first focused faculties as that could be a place the place plenty of greywater is generated and there may be sufficient area to recycle it.
“Every baby generates about 8 litres of greywater day by day in a faculty. So contemplate a faculty with 4,000 college students, which is a chance to recycle 16,000 litres of water per day and create a optimistic impression,” he provides.
The way it works
The fundamental concept is to divert the greywater earlier than it mixes with the sewage water in order that it may be recycled.
Step one that Prashant takes is to conduct a greywater audit to calculate the quantity of water that the varsity or organisation generates per day. The second step is to establish the simplest method and place the place this water will be recycled. The third and last step is to design, construct, check and operationalise the answer.
“Since faculties have plenty of flooring and lots of loos, we have to discover a supply the place we will recycle the water simply with out a lot civil work and expenditure,” he provides.
In Prashant’s mannequin of constructed wetlands, all filtration exercise happens under the bottom, assuaging the issues of water stagnation, unhealthy odour and danger of mosquito breeding.
Up to now, his basis has labored with faculties in Delhi and Uttarakhand, authorities faculties in Sundargarh, Odisha and Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Nainital, recycling over 6 lakh litres of water per 12 months. This 12 months, Prashant expects the quantity to extend to 10 lakh litres per 12 months.
The organisation is self-funded and Prashant expenses the colleges/faculties just for the civil work. He hopes to show it right into a session service with an annual upkeep contract like those that water filter corporations cost.
His working mannequin is straightforward — offering greywater recycling as a service.
For the primary two faculty initiatives, Prashant borrowed cash from family and friends to construct the options. He’s now working with village administrations and the ashram on a revenue-based mannequin.
“Wherever folks pays, we’re taking a small charge. We need to generate income as a substitute of relying on funds from bigger gamers as this may allow us to fund initiatives in villages and communities who can’t afford it,” shares Prashant.
Up to now although, he’s managing as his spouse has a company job.
What retains him going is the response on the bottom. “The response has been very optimistic in every single place I’ve been. Proper from villages to cities, persons are fed up with stagnant water and need a answer,” shares Prashant.
In accordance with this water conservationist, “The aim of residing needs to be greater than making a living, it has to contain fulfilling the wants of people who find themselves inside your sphere of affect.”
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You may e-mail Prashant on [email protected] or name him on 9711086014.
Edited by Padmashree Pande, Photographs Courtesy Prashant Sharma
