Class V kids reveal city wastes over 5 million litres water only on car wash

Thane: Over five million litres of water is wasted on a daily basis only in washing cars in the lake-city. This has been revealed during a research project that was carried out by four 11-year-old students from the Thane.
The Class V students of A K Joshi School not only carried out a dipstick survey themselves in societies, malls and service stations, but also sought the assistance of the RTO and did a detailed analysis of the situation before zeroing in on the figures.
The city is already reeling under severe water shortage. Wasting water on just washing cars everyday is not a sign. Sara Kulkarni, who was the brain behind the project, said, “Every year, we face water crisis. Even now we don’t get water for two to three days a week. So, when we were asked to think of a science project on environment at the National Children Science Congress in October, this is the first thing that came to my mind.”
Along with her classmates —Aditi Inamdar, Aditi Pethe and Varada Dhapre— Sara conducted a dipstick survey in Naupada, Wagle Estate, Charai, Thane East and Ram Maruti area. They asked 128 vehicle owners, including 52 car owners, as to how many times they wash their vehicles and how much water they use for the same.
The results showed that the 52 cars used as much as 21,870 litres of water a month. On an average, one car uses around 14 litres of water a day. The students then approached the RTO and found that as many as 37,469 cars were registered in the past one year. If one multiplies this figure with the amount of water used by one car then an estimated 52,45,086 litres of water is used by car owners to just wash their vehicles.
“We were shocked when we realised that so much water is wasted only on washing cars. If we had calculated the amount used by other vehicles then the figures will increase even further,” said Shamal Kulkari, Sara’s mother who guided the team through the project.
The five-month-long survey has mirrored the existing ignorance among citizens. “In our research we observed that while everyone talks about conserving water, not many actually do it. People still take their vehicles to car wash stations and end up wasting 400 litres of water. Others use pipes than waste around 75 litres of water at one time. Moreover, 57% wash their cars daily, which is unnecessary,” Sara added.