Neha Blunt
2026 Eco-Hero
3rd PLACE
Neha Blunt
Age 13
Marlton, New Jersey, USA
Water Saver: Accessible Tech Tools for Community Conservation
At 13 years old, software developer and environmentalist Neha Blunt is leveraging computer science to solve real-world ecological crises. Shocked by an Evesham Township Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) calendar illustrating that a single leaking faucet can bleed over 2,000 gallons of clean water down the drain every month, Neha recognized that resource scarcity threatens both human health and the environment. Despite living in New Jersey—a water-rich state receiving roughly 45 inches of annual rainfall—she uncovered warnings that rising populations and the state's driest Fall on record in 2024 were severely straining public water infrastructure. Driven by the ethos that "Every Drop Counts," Neha launched the "Water Savers" campaign in the spring of 2023, combining her self-taught programming skills with grassroots organizing.
To give citizens a direct tool for conservation, Neha spent seven months independently developing Water Saver, a custom web-based application designed to gamify and track household resource consumption. Championing environmental justice, she deliberately engineered Water Saver as a browser-accessible web application, ensuring that low-income and overburdened communities could utilize the tool on any device without requiring paid software or complex installations. When faced with the massive technical obstacle of securely handling user log-ins and database management, Neha completed an intensive crash course to master MySQL, successfully building the backend framework entirely from scratch.
Neha’s initiative quickly scaled from a local municipal project into a multi-state advocacy network. Her application won Third Place in the prestigious 2023 Congressional App Challenge, making her the youngest competitor to place against a field of high school programmers. Appointed as the official Water Conservation Ambassador by the Evesham Environmental Commission and serving as a student liaison to the Economic Advisory Council, Neha systematically targets corporate and public policy. She consults new business owners at commercial ribbon-cuttings and has partnered with lawmakers like Senator Jean Stanfield, Mayor Jaclyn Veasy, Deputy Mayor Heather Cooper, Assemblyman Brandon Umba, and Assemblywoman Andrea Katz, who honored her campaign with a formal New Jersey General Assembly resolution. For her outstanding impact, she also received the Governor’s Volunteerism Award in Environmental Stewardship.
To date, Neha’s multi-dimensional campaign has directly educated over 1 million people worldwide, empowered over 100,000 residents to make daily lifestyle changes, and saved an estimated 20 million gallons of water. Her application features DIY tutorials on rain barrels and rain gardens, alongside spotlight features on global water scarcity.
Beyond water security, Neha is a prodigious force in community service and STEM. Programming since age three, Neha earned 22 college credits by age 13 and was the youngest student in her county to take AP Calculus BC in the 6th grade. Alongside her sister, she developed Cair, an indoor air quality monitoring system. She is also currently an intern at Project Refit, developing a peer-to-peer support app for veterans, and recently designed an Elder Fraud Awareness program alongside Stockton University after a family member was scammed. Furthermore, she has dedicated over 200 service hours to teaching free coding courses to underserved young girls at her local library, and as Treasurer of the Youth Advisory Committee, she spearheaded a Pi Day fundraiser that generated enough revenue to award three $500 scholarships to graduating seniors.
Looking forward, Neha is collaborating with the Evesham MUA to launch Water Saver 2.0, establishing a secure data pathway to plot live household water usage into interactive charts. She also plans to fundraise for a Charity: Water well project to provide clean water for an entire town. Ultimately, she intends to major in Computer Science with a concentration in Cybersecurity, aiming to work for the National Security Agency (NSA) to defend critical infrastructure.
"When resources seem abundant, people slip into passive habits and waste water without ever realizing it. True environmental justice means everyone deserves access to clean water and a healthy living environment, no matter where they live. If you have a passion for technology, you can build tools right now that protect our natural ecosystem and inspire a long-lasting conservation mindset."
