In simple terms, greywater is wash-water. That is, all wastewater excepting toilet and food wastes. greywater contains phosphorous, potassium and nitrogen and other chemicals sourced mainly from soaps and detergents, it is, after all the same ingredients making greywater a cause for pollution for lakes rivers and ground water turns out to be excellent nutrients sources for vegetation, when it is made available for irrigation. Our college hostel produces unbelievably large amount of greywater daily, which were being just gutted out earlier, in the process, creating several environmental problems in addition to the energy cost and ground water depletion.

Now the problem persist no more, thanks to a novel idea conceptualized by our director. The solution is simple, our college needs trees in large numbers and trees need plenty of water to sustain its life and growth, therefore instead of eliminating greywater we are now reusing greywater to water trees. Greywater from different sources are collected and then pumped to specific locations from where it is distributed to trees through canal systems.

One might have questions about the safety factors in this ‘reuse’ project. Greywater collected in our premises are not stored more than 24 hours, storing it longer will make it anaerobic, bacteria rich and malodorous, becoming unfit to be used for irrigation and implicating other environmental problems like spreading of disease etc. This reuse of greywater could represent a safe way to conserve natural water supplies and keep natural freshwater sources free of contamination, and also shows that the elimination or treatment of greywater is not the most efficient way to deal with it.