Ideaz

One of the biggest challenges facing cities today is water scarcity. While awareness campaigns encourage people to save water, current solutions—like low-flow taps or rainwater harvesting—only scratch the surface. They reduce consumption but do not directly address the waste of reusable water. For example, large volumes of relatively clean water from sinks, showers, and washing machines are flushed away every day instead of being recycled.

My idea is to develop a smart modular water recycling system that can be easily installed in urban homes and apartments. The system would collect greywater (from sinks, showers, washing machines), filter it through a compact multi-layer filtration unit, and redirect the treated water for non-potable uses like toilet flushing, gardening, or floor cleaning. Unlike large, expensive centralized systems, this would be modular, affordable, and IoT-enabled—users could track water savings in real time through a mobile app.

The gap in the current market is accessibility. Most water recycling technologies are either large-scale (for housing societies or commercial buildings) or expensive custom installations. A plug-and-play, apartment-friendly solution is rare.

The beneficiaries would be urban households facing water shortages, housing societies struggling with rising water bills, and the larger community that relies on strained municipal water supplies. Over time, widespread adoption could significantly reduce urban water demand and lower the energy costs associated with pumping and treating fresh water.

This problem matters to me because I have seen frequent water shortages in my own community, where residents are forced to depend on costly tanker water. With climate change worsening droughts, sustainable solutions at the household level are no longer optional—they are essential.