(July 7, 2022) The drought crisis in 2015 left 330 million Indians affected – a number that made the then 15-year-old Garvita Gulhati frantically look for answers. Keen to find a way to conserve water, she started Why Waste? – a youth-led initiative to educate people on preserving water and changing their mind set on water wastage. In the last seven years, it has impacted over six million people and has saved over 10 million litres of water. A feat that has helped the now 21-year-old changemaker to make it to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and has won her the Diana Award.
“At Why Waste? our main goal is to let each individual understand the importance of water resources and join hands with us in protecting and conserving this natural resource,” reads the official website.
An incident that changed it all
A visit to one of the most iconic step wells in Ahmedabad was a turning point for the teenager, when she met an exasperated little girl who was looking for water. “I quickly gave it to her, and in no time, her eyes lit up and her face was adorned with a smile. This was in 2015, and the incident has been pivotal for me, making me realise the importance of treating water with respect,” she told Indian Express. That one incident led her on a journey to discover more about the water crisis. A few months of research led to baffling statistics. The Global Indian found that 14 million litres of water is wasted every year in the form of the leftover water in glasses at restaurants.
Garvita Gulhati is the founder of Why Waste
Seeing the stark contrast between two worlds – one that had a little girl feverishly looking for water and another, where so much water was wasted daily, left Garvita “shocked”. That’s when she decided to commit herself to save every drop of water with Why Waste. “I started with the goal of changing the mindsets of people towards water usage,” added the Bengaluru girl.
Going above and beyond
But her venture into Why Waste came with its share of challenges. The teenager was met with dissent from family and friends who believed it was a “waste of time.” Even restaurateurs shrugged her off as a teenager but Garvita was committed to bringing a change. That’s when she re-approached the problem of water wastage in restaurants with a new lens – #GlassHalfFullMovement. The place cards told moving stories to the customers and taught them to take only as much water as they need and not waste it. The campaign gained momentum, and Why Waste was able to “reach over 600+ schools, 100,000 restaurants and impact over 2.5 million people to start thinking differently.” It was in 2018 that Garvita petitioned the National Restaurants Association of India, an umbrella entity of 5,00,000 restaurants, and took on the challenge of campaigning for a year persuading them to implement the idea. It finally won their support after she proved that it saves 50 percent of the water which was being wasted earlier.
This led to collaborations with various organisations to conduct workshops and make more people aware of the problem. It was with the help of organisations like Ashoka – Everyone a Changemaker, Global Changemakers, and Change.org that she powered through as they “saw the potential” when not everyone did. “Taking shape almost 4 years ago, our super simple and cool idea to prevent water from being wasted at restaurants is today being re-created by people, groups, institutions, and governments from around the globe! We’re so proud to see our trademarked initiative living a life of its own,” reads the Why Waste website.
Making an impact
An engineering graduate, Garvita finds inspiration in Steve Jobs and Indra Nooyi. Their stories of leadership drove her to bring about a change. “The key values of a changemaker – leadership, teamwork, empathy – these are what help you make an idea, a movement, and a systemic change,” she said in a video.
In 2021, the Why Waste app was launched to help users track their water consumption. “It helps them calculate their water footprint and save at least 100 litres of water every day through a gamified approach,” she told Weather.com. Taking inspiration from the Cape Town water crisis of 2018 and the way citizens averted day zero through collective action, Garvita was ready to start the app. They found a solution by calculating the amount of water consumed daily and rationing it,” she told The National. Dubbed as the “water girl of India” and the only recipient of Shawn Mendes Foundation’s first Wonder Grant, Garvita’s Why Waste is moving beyond borders to create an impact. With volunteers from Africa, Europe, Dubai, Nepal, Mexico, the UK, the US, and Canada, it’s growing its international partnerships.
Recently, she along with her team created a book The Sustainability Stories, a collection of fables that inspire children to be the change. The 21-year-old is keen to tap into the potential of the youth as changemakers. Garvita, who has brought about a change in the usage of water in the last few years, is on a mission to help people realise that they can play a pivotal role in solving the water crisis problem. “They say that change is the only constant. But I think now this world is in constant need of changemakers.”
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