Marlton resident Neha Blunt was recently named a winner of the 2026 International Young Eco-Hero Awards for Action For Nature, a nonprofit that encourages young people to take personal action to better their environments and to foster love and respect for nature.
“You don’t have to wait until you’re older to make an impact,” Blunt said. “You can take something that you’re passionate about, whether that’s technology, science, art or anything else, and use it to solve a problem that you care about.”
The International Young Eco-Hero Award recognizes eco-conscious youth ages 8 to 16 for meaningful environmental action, from tracking carbon emissions on a backyard hydroponic farm to building a national biosecurity network to prevent bird flu. This year’s applicant pool was the most diverse to date, with 476 applicants from across 50 countries. Only 16 winners aged 10 to 16 were chosen, including Blunt, placing them among a small, distinguished group of young environmental leaders whose past honorees have gone on to serve as United Nations ambassadors and lead international climate initiatives.
At just 13-years-old, Blunt launched something special in the spring of 2023. It all started when she saw a photo from the 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. That’s when she recognized that resource scarcity threatens both human health and the environment. Combining her self-taught programming skills with grassroots organizing, Blunt spent seven months developing the Water Savers campaign, a free web app that helps households track their water use.
“My mom has always instilled in me and my (two) sisters that water is a very precious resource, and that it is all of our responsibility to use it sensibly and not waste it,” Blunt said. “Water scarcity is not just a problem during droughts or in faraway places. With an estimated 45-inches of rainfall per year, New Jersey is considered a water rich state. However, the (New Jersey) Department of Environmental Protection has warned us that increasing populations and water needs are putting a strain on water supply.”
Since its inception, the Water Savers campaign has educated more than 1 million people worldwide, empowered over 100,000 residents to make daily lifestyle changes and saved an estimated 20 million gallons of water. The campaign won third place in the 2023 Congressional App Challenge, making Blunt 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, Blunt systematically targets corporate and public policy. She has partnered with lawmakers like Sen. 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. She’s also received the Governor’s Volunteerism Award in Environmental Stewardship.
“My campaign urges residents to adopt achievable lifestyle changes that support a sustainable future where every drop counts,” Blunt said. “A few simple steps such as turning off the faucet when brushing your teeth, shaving or doing dishes, and installing a low-flow showerhead and fixing running toilets would make a huge impact.”
Blunt 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.
“I love being able to do something that I am passionate about to make a difference,” Blunt said. “Young people are creative, innovative and resourceful, and together we can take meaningful action for nature, our planet and our future.”
Thirteen-year-old Marlton resident Neha Blunt is the founder of the Water Savers campaign, a free web app that helps households track their water use.
