Since childhood, everyone in New Delhi hears about how water is life, and without it, you die. But while most hear these words and go on with their lives, 14-year-old Rishabh Prasobh from Bangalore was profoundly influenced. The National Academy for Learning student decided to confront the water crisis head-on by adopting an approach to save water, first on the individual level then beyond.
His water mission ended up saving 7 million liters of water in one year and reduced the water bills in houses by 30%. It involved Rishabh convincing his school, two hotels, and the tenets of his housing society to use an aerator – small mechanical devices fitted in taps that mix water with air. They ensure that water flowing from the tap remains constant, whatever the pressure might be.
If an aerator is installed in a tap that supplies 15 liters of water per minute, it’ll reduce the water supply by six liters per minute. Resultantly, one device can save 1,274 liters of water per month. A kitchen sink equipped with an aerator can save three to four liters per minute.
Rishabh got the idea to use the device after participating in the social initiative 1 Million for 1 Billion (an UN-recognized organization) in 2019. There, he studied various issues concerning the environment.
Bengaluru has a water scarcity problem. Rishabh spoke to several activists, environmental organizations, and water conservationists in the city to fundamentally understand the issue. He realized that the water demand was increasing as the population increased, but the supply was decreasing. So, he realized that the only solution was to reduce water consumption.
The Indian population is expected to increase to 1.6 billion by 2050. Meanwhile, the country’s per capita water availability is projected to decrease to 1,235 cubic meters simultaneously, according to an ICAR report (in 2025, it’ll be at 1,465 cubic meters). If these figures were to fall below 1,000 cubic meters, India would be declared a water-stressed country.
Rishabh said:
Though I read about several crises including air pollution, one thing that caught my eye was water scarcity because this problem was something I noticed first hand in Bengaluru. I saw that several ponds were drying up and watched the news on lack of water supply to several households.
Rishabh began by installing an aerator in his grandmother’s house. When the bill came, it was 30% less than without the aerator.
He said:
At the household level, the best way to reduce water consumption is by fitting aerators in water taps. Usually, the taps in our kitchens and bathrooms release 6 liters of water per minute, and aerators can cut them down to 3 or 4 liters. Within a month of fitting just one aerator, we noticed a 30% drop in my grandmother’s water bill. Earlier the bill was around Rs 340, but the rate dropped to around Rs 250.
He took this as proof to convince the Residents Association of his housing society to adopt the solution. They accepted his proposal and fitted each apartment with an aerator. Water consumption in the community reduced so much that they saved two million liters of water in a year.
Rishabh said:
The apartment community managed to decrease their water consumption and save 20 lakh liters of water within 12 months.
He then took this example to two Marriott hotels, one in Cochin and the other in Kerala. They, too, accepted and ended up saving about five million liters of water in a year. Upon this success, he approached his school’s principal Indira Jayakrishnan to have aerators installed across campus.
This year he plans to save ten million liters of water by extending this initiative to more hotels, schools, malls, and theaters across the city.
