Prashant Sharma had a nightmarish experience during the 2019 water crisis in Chennai when he struggled to even provide drinking water to his toddler.

The 50-year-old found that the way to solve this problem was by recycling greywater, which is  basically domestic wastewater collected from wash basins, washing machines, showers, and kitchens.

“Water is obviously one of the biggest problems in the world today. I also visited a lot of villages after 2019 and looked at ways I could contribute. I found my calling in water conservation,” shares Prashant.

If greywater in schools, colleges and homes are recycled, it could be one of the ways to avoid a water crisis.

This recycled greywater can be used to recharge groundwater, water plants and clean. It is even useful in landscaping and gardening, along with being used to flush toilets and more.

This idea led to Prashant quitting his corporate career and starting a non-profit organisation called ‘Positive Action For Child And Earth Foundation’ in 2022.

“If 100 litres of water are being released, almost 70 litres of that is greywater, i.e. non-faecal water with minimum impurities, which can be easily recycled. Urban India generates about 70 litres of greywater per person per day, but in almost 100 percent cases, this greywater is simply mixed with sewage,” he adds.

Generally, this greywater is mixed with sewage water. It then either goes to Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) or is just discharged in the open.

Prashant’s method of recycling greywater is building Constructed Wetlands (CW), which are man-made wastewater recycling systems which resemble natural wetlands in treatment.

First, he conducts a greywater audit, identifies the easiest way and place to recycle the water and then builds the solution.

In Prashant’s model of constructed wetlands, all filtration activity occurs below the ground, alleviating the problems of water stagnation, bad odour and the risk of mosquito breeding.

He has so far worked with schools in Delhi and Uttarakhand and government colleges in Sundargarh, Odisha and Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Nainital, recycling over 6 lakh litres of water per year.

The organisation is self-funded and Prashant charges the schools/colleges only for the civil work. He hopes to turn it into a consultation service with an annual maintenance contract like the ones that water filter companies charge.

According to this water conservationist, “The purpose of living has to be more than making money, it has to involve fulfilling the needs of people who are within your sphere of influence.”

You can email Prashant on pash.childrensearth@gmail.com or call him on 9711086014.