When two eight-year-old boys learned about their science project at school, they decided to step out of the standard display board model and go big!
Yash and Ishaan decided that the ongoing drought isn’t too big to conquer — if everyone does their part. So, they issued a challenge for everyone in their community to choose five different ways to save water beginning May 1st to May 31st.
These creative and gritty third graders came up with suggestions for fellow students (and grownups, too!) to save water. Their research came up with the following ways to use this precious resource wisely. Their goal is to save 50 gallons each month, per household, both inside and outdoors.
Indoor Tips:
- Shorter showers (you can save 2.5 gallons per minute)
- One less toilet flush a day = 2 gallons a flush
- Collect all cold water from the shower using a bucket = 2 gallons a bucket
- Turn off water while brushing teeth = 2 gallons per minute
Outdoor Tips:
- Replace lawn at your home with drought-tolerant plants
- Reduce irrigation by a minute per cycle – can save 4-11 gallons per minute depending on the size of the water service (pipe)
- Pour all unused water from your drinking water bottle on any plant and not in the drain – small step but it all adds up!
Other parts of the science project included ideas about recycling water and desalination. Yash came up with his own version of a recycling plant. This included a schematic showing a storage facility, a recycled water filtration plant, and a pipe bringing high-quality drinking water directly from San Jose Water’s mains in the street. A separate description included the steps for conserving water by recycling.
Ishaan looked at desalination as another way of creating a new source of water. The desalination process is both described and illustrated below — from collecting seawater to drinking the processed water.
Yash and Ishann will be sharing their conservation tips throughout May as part of Water Awareness Month. Check out San Jose Water’s social media accounts to keep up with their progress.