One of the biggest nightmares for the residents of Chennai was on 19 June 2019, when the city was out of drinking water. Called ‘Day Zero’, it was one of the worst water crises faced by the city as the municipality ran out of drinking water.

Around the same time, Prashant Sharma, a programme manager in an IT firm, happened to be visiting his in-laws in Chennai with his wife and two-year-old son. The worried father had to scramble for water for over a week to provide for his toddler’s needs.

He recalls how people rushed towards the water tankers and paid extra to ensure that they received it. However, the water they got was often salty and unclean which needed to be boiled several times before being used.

This incident left him spending days in search of solutions.

“I wondered about what we could do. Since water is a finite resource, how could we make its usage more circular?” Prashant shares with The Better India.

The solution the 50-year-old found was using greywater, which is basically domestic wastewater from wash basins, washing machines, showers, kitchens.

A DownToEarth report estimates that India generates about 31 billion litres of greywater every day.

The sustainability enthusiast found that recycling greywater in schools, colleges, homes could be a viable solution that could help us tide over the water crisis in the future. This recycled greywater can be used to recharge groundwater, water plants, clean, in landscaping and gardening, in the toilet flush and more.

With his idea in place, Prashant quit his corporate career and founded a non-profit called ‘Positive Action For Child And Earth Foundation’ in 2022. Through a sustainable and natural recycling method developed by Prashant, he claims that the schools in Delhi and Uttarakhand are today saving six lakh litres of freshwater yearly.

‘We can’t afford to be passive spectators anymore’

While Prashant was earlier working in IT companies in India and London, his tryst with sustainability and waste water recycling started in 2010. He became actively involved in sustainability initiatives........

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