River Water for Toilets: A Promising Fix for Water Waste

Kayson Sunjoto at JSS 2025 (Ist)

JAKARTA - The Jakarta Scholars Symposium (JSS) held its annual 2025 symposium under the theme "Advocacy in Action," showcasing groundbreaking projects by students aiming to tackle real-world environmental and social challenges.

The international event highlighted how young innovators are designing a more sustainable future—with one standout proposal coming from Kayson Sunjoto, an 11th grader at Jakarta Intercultural School, who presented a project on clean water conservation.

His focus? Reducing household water waste—starting with toilets.

Flushing accounts for nearly 24% of a home’s water use, with a single flush consuming 6 to 9 litres. To address this, Kayson proposed an unconventional yet practical solution: diverting river water for toilet use.

His system involves installing a Floating Net Barrier in rivers to filter out debris before channeling the water into storage tanks. While not drinkable, the treated water would be clean enough for flushing.

If implemented, households would have two separate water supplies: one for drinking, bathing, and washing, and another—sourced from rivers—exclusively for toilets.

"I plan to develop this further with Spring, an organisation dedicated to expanding clean water access in Indonesia," said Kayson, who serves as its CFO. Founded in 2016, Spring builds wells and sanitation facilities in underserved communities.

"This is a long-term project, and I hope the younger students here will continue pushing it forward," he added.