water conservation
After reading about the suffering people in South Africa and Yemen were facing due to water scarcity in their area, I decided I want to work towards water conservation in my city.
Water is a precious resource and most of us are blessed to be getting a supply of it in our homes every day. According to the United Nations website, water scarcity already affects every continent and an increasing number of places are reaching the limit at which water services can be substantially delivered.
They report that over 2 billion people live in countries experiencing high water stress. With the growing population, it is becoming increasingly important for us to conserve this precious resource to the best of our ability. Hence, as a part of my summer internship I decided to volunteer at a water management firm in Gurgaon, India.
My goal for the project is to see how we can minimise the water usage in my apartment complex by carrying out thorough research on how and where the water in my colony is most used. I am also looking at the utilisation of waste water after it has been treated by the STP (sewage treatment plant) installed in my colony.
On my first day at the internship, I was introduced to my mentors. They briefed me on how I would approach my research project and made sure I understood the logistics behind the work that lay ahead of me.
I was then asked to do research on the various STP technologies that exist in India. They included: SP, SBR, MBBR, MBR and SBT. After doing some research, I made a detailed mini – report on the technologies in order to understand the process behind water management better. Even though all technologies primarily have the same function, their mechanisms are very different.
After doing the research, I was given a sheet with a plan of the total water management scheme in housing society’s and I studied it with thoroughness. There were a few terms I didn’t understand, but after a quick google search, everything ‘flowed’ smoothly 😉
Following lunch, my mentors and I discussed the data which I need to collect in order for me to make the report. We finally came to a conclusion and I noted down all the necessary statistics that I needed to retrieve from my colony.
Finally, at the end of the work day, my mentor showed me a project similar to mine he had been working on for 2 hotels very near to my school. It was astonishing to see the level of detail and precision with which the report was written. I knew at the end, it would be a major accomplishment and a moment of pride for helping save the planet. I was excited and ended the day eager to get moving!
Navya's blog 