THE INSPIRATION: Growing up in Northern California, where droughts are a regular occurrence, Shreya Ramachandran understood that water is a precious resource. But it wasn’t until she took a trip to Southern India, where her family is from, that she saw how deeply water scarcity can affect people’s lives. The region was experiencing severe drought, and Shreya’s family had to collect the household’s daily allotment of water from a tanker truck. “When you stand in line with hundreds of other people to get water for basic needs like drinking, bathing, and cooking, water scarcity is not something you can ignore,” Shreya says.
In fact, almost two-thirds of the global population experiences water scarcity at least one month each year. Shreya returned home determined to find a way to make sure everyone has access to enough water.
THE ACTION: Shreya learned that the water left over from things like taking showers, washing our clothes, and doing the dishes is called grey water. It’s not clean enough to drink, but it has many other uses, such as watering plants and flushing toilets. In fact, reusing grey water can save up to 11 trillion gallons of water per year in the U.S. alone.