1.8 billion – that’s how many people on our planet are currently living without access
to clean drinking water.
One of the biggest culprits of this problem is water pollution.
Luckily, there are people like Ramveer Tanwar setting an example and taking action to solve
this crisis!
The 26-year-old Tanwar grew up in the little village of Dadha in Uttar Pradesh, India.
He spent his childhood helping his dad, who’s a farmer like most people in the area, and
playing by lakes and ponds with his friends.
But when he was a student at a local technical university, he noticed that his favorite childhood
hangouts were starting to disappear.
While clean water levels are declining throughout India, the crisis is especially bad in the
remote regions like where Tanwar is from.
A lot of wetlands were polluted and became dumping grounds instead.
The budding environmentalist realized it wasn’t chemical waste but simply garbage that people
threw out without thinking of the consequences.
So, he decided that it was time to change this and educate people about the importance
of clean water.
Tanwar started off by giving lessons to kids from his village, who began to feel like they
had to do something about their dying water sources.
Their new teacher told them to warn their parents about the existing problem of pollution
and water conservation.
Sadly, this didn’t work at first since the adults in the village refused to believe that
they could ever run out of water.
Fortunately, Tanwar isn’t the type of guy who gives up on what he believes in.
He decided that he had to do this on his own and went from house to house, to each and
every resident, to explain the gravity of the issue when it comes to depleting water
resources.
Later, he told the students to come with their parents every Sunday to a special place where
he’d facilitate a discussion and suggest methods to conserve water.
The message finally started to sink in, and the villagers were really starting to grasp
the problem they were facing.
His effort was recognized by the district authorities, and these community meetings
were officially called “Jal Chaupals.”
In 2015, Ramveer and his team of volunteers, students, and their parents removed all the
garbage from the first pond.
Not only did they clean it, they also planted some trees around it.
Later on, they invited the local administration to come and see the glorious restoration.
The good news spread fast and soon enough, people from other villages and districts started
to come to Tanwar to ask for help with the restoration of their local lakes.
Thanks to the efforts of many volunteers and enthusiasts, dozens of lakes and ponds have
been restored throughout India.
The most important thing in cleaning these bodies of water was to prevent further pollution.
The activists can’t stop people from dumping waste out of their homes altogether, so once
the water has been cleaned, the team digs out a separate pit with a wooden mesh to collect
garbage.
They then install a double filtration system with a filter made of wooden planks and a
patch of different grasses to prevent bigger and smaller pieces of garbage from making
their way into the water in the future.
Volunteers clean these pits and filters once a week.
As for smaller waste, they’ve made an agreement with fish farmers to raise at least 10,000
slush-eating fish to take care of those finer waste particles.
The state authorities then helped Ramveer set up something called “Groundwater Army”
organizations in each district of the state, and the young pioneer is now the coordinator
in his district.
The organizations work together for water conservation in their areas.
Unfortunately, the state can’t provide funds to support this program, so Tanwar actually
travels to different villages, makes info banners, and really gets out there and spreads
the message.
He still works full-time from 5am to 2pm six days a week along with all this water conservation
work.
In fact, he’s already had to change jobs 5 times to make sure he always has enough
time for what he really cares about.
He says he gets motivation from this hands-on work with villagers that are “eager to listen
and participate.”
Ramveer also finds it important that they get involved in the process and don’t just
clean one body of water once but work as a team to maintain it.
Another campaign the young Indian environmentalist started is called #SelfieWithPond.
The idea of it, according to Tanwar himself, is “to connect the youth with dying lakes,
which are being converted into dumping sites.”
In a world where social media can really get a message out there and be a driving force
for change, this campaign became an instant success, and thousands of people worldwide
started sharing their pictures and videos.
And there are plenty of others out there like Ramveer Tanwar who are working day and night
to improve the ecology of our planet.
Felix Finkbeiner, a 21-year-old from Germany, is the founder of a global youth movement
called Plant for the Planet.
Its 75,000 climate ambassadors have planted a total of over 15 billion saplings worldwide!
When he was just 9 years old, the activist got inspired by Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize-winner
and tree-planter Wangari Maathai.
Finkbeiner announced he was going to inspire other kids around the world to plant 1 million
trees in their countries.
Not exactly everyone believed him back then, but his motto “Stop talking, start planting”
took the world by storm.
Then, schools across the globe got involved, and 1 million trees were planted within the
first 2 years!
Finkbeiner has been invited to speak at the United Nations and the European Parliament,
and his Plant for the Planet initiative is now an NGO supported by the World Wildlife
Fund, the German government, and other prominent organizations.
The young environmentalist doesn’t lack ambition, and he’s since launched the Trillion
Tree campaign that’s easily the biggest reforestation project ever.
Its goal is to plant 1 trillion trees across the world within the next 30 years.
Given that our planet currently has around 3 trillion trees altogether, it’s really
a super ambitious goal.
And, of course, a really eco-friendly one!
According to the initiative’s founder, 1 trillion trees could absorb 25% of all CO2
emissions produced by people!
It would also have a huge socio-economic impact, creating millions of jobs in the timber industry
worldwide.
Another example of a young person gaining international fame for their passionate pursuit
of improving our planet’s ecology is Greta Thunberg.
The 16-year-old from Sweden has found her own way to express her concern about the dangers
of global climate change.
She first learned about the crisis when she was 8 years old.
The girl was so shocked by how serious and threatening the issue is that she decided
to take action!
She managed to persuade her mom to give up air travel and her dad to become a vegetarian.
And she didn’t stop there.
In the summer of 2018, when a crazy heatwave struck northern Europe and caused forest fires,
she took a handmade banner and sat on the stairs of the Swedish Parliament building
all by herself.
She continues to do this every single Friday to this day!
And while Thunberg was alone at first, her classmates and kids from other schools have
since joined her in the struggle to raise awareness.
By now, people from 71 countries in over 700 places have also supported her initiative.
Her original banner saying “School strike for climate” in Swedish has been translated
into tons of different languages.
Greta has been invited to speak at the UN Climate Change Conference and even met both
the French president and the German chancellor!
So, a teenager has been heard, given the floor, and, most importantly, inspired others to
pay attention to what really matters!
But it’s not like you have to go out and travel the world, meet with presidents, or
start your own organization (although, these things are great too for those who can!)
Just speaking to your community, perhaps filming some eco documentaries, writing short stories
or graphic novels, or physically taking action and cleaning the waters in your area – there
are so many ways to get involved in the green movement!
And if you’ve got a busy schedule (like we all do), then start off with small lifestyle
changes.
For example, watch your water consumption when you’re taking a shower or brushing
your teeth.
Small changes really do add up in the long run!
Would you personally want to get involved in some ecological campaign?
Let me know down in the comments!
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