Perpetuated Days

July 2018

Perpetuated Days

Ever since World Environment Day came up, I tried thinking about the things I could do to follow the movement.

Many of the activities we do on days celebrating earth certainly help the environment, but since it is not followed regularly, it is but highly ineffective.

But just as days passed by, my memories too faded away. It was only later that I was reminded of this topic again.

In school, we were asked to form pairs and work on something made of waste. We had to speak about this product not only as a graded activity but also as a part of our school competition.

At first, I had too many ideas filling my thoughts. But in the end, nothing was good enough.

And of course, like always, I asked my mom for an idea. It didn’t take her much time to suggest an idea, which in due course of time would win me the prize.

Her idea was simple. With a few folds of newspaper sheets, a perfect sized garbage bags would fit snuggly into one’s dustbin. The problem of plastic bags ending up in the bio-degradable bin was her motive behind this.

And of course, like always, I thanked her, planted a kiss on her cheek and joyfully walked back into my room. I immediately told Deeksha, my partner in this project, about this plan and she loved the idea too.

And as a result of that simple yet amazing idea, our newspaper bags were ready. These bags could be used for sanitary waste as well. A smaller sized bag could serve as a temporary sharpener-shaving container. It has two flaps to cover the waste before ideal disposal.

We were selected for the finals with this project and we were able to impress the judges with our bags. We bagged the first place and were followed by other amazing initiatives.

This project, unlike normal school ones, is for a better cause. Even though we are done with it, we still make paper bags for household uses.

Waiting impatiently for the results

Other than reusing items for the better, another initiative in trend lately has been rainwater harvesting. From the ancient times, people have found smart ideas to save water for use. More than before, we require clean and extra water for use due to the depleting freshwater (sorry, Science portions still fresh in my mind 😂).

Water has been harvested in India since antiquity, with our ancestors perfecting the art of water management. One instance where history shows us a scientific way to conserve water is the Chitradurga Fort in the Chitradurga District, Karnataka.

Since the amount of groundwater is decreasing rapidly by the day, there is a decrease in the water received through borewells.

Hence, when my parents were getting our new house built, they decided to do rainwater harvesting instead of the traditional digging of borewells.

From the roof, water is collected and led to the huge tank before our magnificent house. This is cleaned and sent to the water filter installed in our home which finally purifies the water, making it fit to drink.