Rishabh Prasobh, a 14-year-old student studying in Class IX of the National Academy for Learning, Bangalore, has started the water mission. Under this, Rishabh placed an ‘arator’ in two hotels, his school and the tents of his housing society. Aerators are small mechanical devices fitted in taps. They mix air with water and ensure that the flow of water coming from the tap remains constant, no matter the pressure. In the taps which supply 15 liters of water per minute, if an aerator is installed in it, it reduces the supply of water by six liters per minute. These devices can save 1,274 liters of water in a month.
This is how the idea cameIn the year 2019, Rishabh participated in a social initiative of ‘1 Million for 1 Billion’ (1M1B), a UN recognized organization. Here he studied various issues related to the environment. The Better India has published an article on this subject. Rishabh told the website that read on a lot of issues like air pollution, but water scarcity was a problem, which has seen itself in Bengaluru. Many ponds are drying up here and many houses also have water problems. Subsequently, to understand this problem at the ground level, Rishabh spoke to several organizations, activists and water conservationists in Bengaluru. He understood that with increasing population, the demand for water is also increasing, but its supply is much less than the demand. Therefore, the only solution to this problem is to reduce water consumption.
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It is possible to save 3 to 4 liters of water per minute from the kitchen sink through an aerator
When Rishabh did research, it was found that at home level, the best way to reduce water consumption is by fitting the aerator in the water tap. Typically, our kitchen sink and bathroom faucet discharge 6 liters of water per minute and can be reduced to 3 or 4 liters by an aerator. To test this, Rishabh installed an erator in his grandmother’s house in Bangalore. He could not put an arator in his house because in his building, water bill of 17 houses comes collected. Which is divided among all. In such a situation, they are not able to correctly estimate the savings in water and cut the bill.
Water bill in grandmother’s house reduced by 30 percent in just one month
According to Rishabh, only a month after fitting an aerator, we saw a 30% reduction in the water bill of grandmother’s house. Earlier his bill used to be around 340 rupees but it was reduced to 250 rupees. After this, he approached the Residents Association of his housing society and gave this solution. Then two aerators were fitted in each apartment. Each house paid for an aerator, which cost around Rs 300 per unit. Rishabh says that within a year, water consumption in the society was reduced and 20 lakh liters of water was saved. After this, Rishabh contacted two Marriott hotels in Cochin, Kerala. Here too, both hotels saved about 50 lakh liters of water in the year itself.
Target to save 10 million liters of water this year
On his success, Rishabh approached his school’s principal Indira Jayakrishnan. Rishabh’s idea has taken the school’s initiative further. In the year 2021, Rishabh is hoping to extend this initiative to more schools, hotels, theaters and malls across the city. Their aim is to help save 10 million liters of water in the city.
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