From waste to water

Water is woven into the fabric of your bedsheets, crucial in mining the materials for your bedside light bulb, and essential in growing and processing your morning coffee.

It is the resource that all life depends on. Your body is 60% water, and 71% of our planet’s surface is covered by it. And it is the next global crisis. Scientists warn that overconsumption and pollution are rapidly depleting our freshwater supplies. Climate change compounds the threat, with an estimated 80% of the world’s population, including most of India, facing significant water security risks.

Auroville is no exception. Situated on a sandstone plateau with no nearby river, it relies almost exclusively on groundwater. All of the township wells tap into aquifers that replenish solely through rainfall. These groundwaters are the main source for domestic, industrial and irrigation requirements in Auroville and its bio-region, with declining water levels and ever deeper tube wells as a consequence. Despite Auroville’s commendable efforts in reforestation and water management – including rainwater harvesting, check-dam construction, and outreach programmes for tank rehabilitation – the persistent degradation of groundwater continues unabated. The stark reality is that, in most places, water extraction outpaces natural recharge by a factor of twenty to one.

A wake-up call

The looming water crisis stems from a complex web of interconnected shortcomings in many areas of human civilisation. Our rapid march towards industrialisation and urban growth has resulted in unprecedented levels of water contamination. Industrial waste, agricultural chemicals, and untreated urban sewage infiltrate our precious freshwater resources at an alarming rate. Simultaneously, we are drawing from our underground water reserves at an unsustainable pace, depleting aquifers far more quickly than nature can replenish them.

Water is also how we will experience many of the impacts of climate change. From unpredictable precipitation patterns to increasing extreme weather events like droughts and floods, these issues are turning into a global crisis with devastating consequences. These overarching issues, compounded by additional factors like widespread deforestation, destruction of wetland ecosystems, and subpar water management strategies, are not only jeopardising our access to freshwater but also significantly degrading the quality of the water that remains available to us. This multifaceted crisis threatens not just our water security, but the very foundations of our ecosystems, economies, and societies.

In response to this looming crisis, Auroville held a Citizens Assembly in 2021/22 to develop a water vision for the community. A randomly selected group of residents heard diverse perspectives on water management and synthesised key elements into a comprehensive plan. The resulting vision emphasised recognising water’s sacredness, using it as a unifying force, and creating a water-conscious society. The assembly also proposed over 50 actions, many focusing on water education.

Ribhu Vohra, from the Auroville unit WasteLess, participated in the Citizens Assembly. His experience of witnessing water scarcity firsthand in Cape Town in March 2018 reinforced the urgency of developing a freshwater curriculum. Ribhu and his co-Founder Chandrah had travelled to South Africa for a conference, only to find themselves in the midst of a climate disaster. Cape Town was approaching Day Zero – the day when the city would run out of water. Consumption was rationed to a mere 50 litres per person per day. Residents queued at supermarkets before dawn for packaged drinking water, with supplies quickly depleting. As they prayed for rain, Ribhu and Chandrah realised they were witnessing the water future of Auroville and possibly all of India and Southeast Asia. They instantly knew that this crisis was no longer a distant threat, but knocking on their doors, demanding immediate action. It was time for WasteLess to act before the taps would run dry!

The idea of a water curriculum was not new; it has been part of WasteLess’ vision since its founding in 2011. In fact, the organisation has always intended to address three major topics via its educational programmes: waste, energy and water. They believe that fostering societal awareness in classrooms about these omnipresent issues will lead to real change driven by the next generation, preserving our planet’s environment. Waste was simply the first issue at hand as it was the most visually present.

After successfully launching ‘Sea Change’ in July 2023, an educational programme inspiring over 13,500 rural Tamil Nadu students to reduce marine plastic pollution, the WasteLess team decided it was time to shift focus from waste to water, tackling another critical environmental challenge.

The water curriculum

In August 2023, the WasteLess team embarked on developing a comprehensive freshwater curriculum. Drawing from their decade-long experience in education, they opted for a phased approach to ensure accuracy, quality, and impact. The initial phase focused on extensive research and analysis.

Chandrah and Ribhu recruited a team of Aurovilians with expertise in academic research and project management. Helen Eveleigh, with her vast background in research and policy advisory for governmental organisations and NGOs worldwide, took the lead in project development. The seven-member team delved deep into the subject, analysing over 100 research papers and interviewing 42 global stakeholders with diverse water-related expertise. This list includes names like Sandra Postel, the founding director of Global Water Policy Project and the receiver of the Stockholm Water Prize in 2021, often described as the Nobel Prize for Water, Rajendra Singh, known as the ‘Waterman of India’ and founder of the NGO Tarun Bharat Sangh (also a Stockholm Water Prize recipient), as well as Ravi Agarwal, activist, artist and founder of the NGO Toxic Links and the Shyama Foundation. The team also conducted interviews with nine water experts from Auroville, including farmers, wastewater and freshwater managers, an urban designer and a geologist. This resulted in an immense amount of rich data.

Identifying key challenges and solutions

Through meticulous analysis and coding of this information, the team identified 52 recurring challenges and 47 potential solutions mentioned in research papers and interviews. The three top challenges that emerged were pollution and water quality, climate change and freshwater scarcity, highlighting the complex interconnectedness of the larger issue at hand. The population that will be affected the most by these issues in the very near future are people who live in urban India.

When it came to global solutions for overcoming the freshwater crisis, improved management, governance, and policy were cited as the most effective approaches, followed closely by education and awareness initiatives. The fact that 35 people or papers mentioned education as an effective solution to the emerging water crisis gave the WasteLess team the final surety that they were on the right track. And with urban Indians as the population mostly affected, it was clearly necessary to develop an educational programme in India for India.

During their research, WasteLess discovered a fascinating insight from scientists and water experts: the importance of building an emotional and personal connection with freshwater. The experts highlighted the profound disconnect between humans and the very resource that sustains us. People often treat water as a mere commodity, exploiting, wasting, and polluting it without recognising its true value. Mridula Ramesh, author of Watershed: How We Destroy India’s Water and How We Can Save It, emphasised this point, stating, “Start with respecting water. Everything else is just going to be symptomatic treatment. And it will always be.” Rajendra Singh, the ‘Waterman of India’, expressed the same in conversation with WasteLess: “We are moving toward disaster because we are not loving to water. We are not giving respect to water. […] This is the crisis.”

Another key theme that emerged across interviews was the potential to develop a curriculum that bridges global challenges with local solutions. This approach would connect global issues like climate change, pollution, and the changing water cycle with local solutions, like traditional local water wisdom and history. By interweaving these two dimensions, the curriculum could demonstrate how small, local actions can address global issues, empowering students with the knowledge that they can make a real difference for our planet.

Interestingly these two aspects – valuing water and bridging global and local dimensions of the water crisis – align closely with the vision set forth by the 2021/22 Citizen Assembly. Their goal to “create a water-conscious society by integrating local and global wisdom and acting boldly with openness toward new possibilities” encapsulates this holistic approach.

In an educational context, these key aspects would translate into equipping and encouraging students to explore their local water situation, both at a personal and community level, while identifying opportunities for effective action. The curriculum would aim to build an emotional connection to water through engaging activities that provoke curiosity, interest, hope, and joy. Furthermore, the educational material should inspire students through stories of everyday people who transformed into water superheroes, teaching them how issues are identified, problems are overcome, and change in communities can happen.

To conclude the research phase, the WasteLess water team, guided by Manas Chakrabarti, filtered through all the research and personal reflections to define the goal of the water curriculum. The research phase concluded with a powerful working goal: “Inspire future generations to become water superheroes, caring stewards of our planet’s most valuable resource by empowering them to take action for a world with healthy water for all.”

Developing a prototype

With the aim and valuable key elements clearly outlined, WasteLess is moving into the next phase of developing a prototype of the curriculum involving several schools in Tamil Nadu. The team will host participatory design sessions with selected groups of students and teachers alike to get initial feedback on larger concepts for the freshwater curriculum, exploring interest and areas of curiosity and researching innovative means of content delivery. Based on the gathered insights, WasteLess will create a pilot version of the curriculum which will include larger theoretical concepts, hands-on classroom activities as well as home and community-based initiatives, to inspire and empower the students. This pilot programme will then be tested extensively with data collected and analysed in order to adapt the content for maximum impact. Here WasteLess will team up with several schools to collect representative data of their target group.

As WasteLess embarks on the next phase of their journey to develop an innovative freshwater curriculum, they now invite the global Auroville community to join their mission. The team is actively seeking inspiring examples of action-based educational materials addressing the freshwater crisis, as well as stories of water superheroes making a difference in communities worldwide. If you come across beautiful action-based educational material on fresh water,

 know about a water superhero in your community, or if you are one yourself, please get in touch with WasteLess by sending a mail to [email protected]. The team would be grateful to receive inspiring input from communities all over the world.

As we face the looming global water crisis, WasteLess believes that we all hold the power to create a world with healthy water for all living beings. The journey towards water consciousness can begin today, with each one of us taking small steps by being grateful when we turn on our tap, realising its magic that sustains our bodies and valuing its worth for our planet. Together, we can turn the tide on the global freshwater crisis, ensuring that this life-giving resource is protected and cherished for generations to come.