- Two South African learners, Kiara Chetty and Calden Gounden, will represent South Africa in Stockholm, Sweden at the Annual Stockholm Junior Youth Water Prize (SJWP) at the end of August.
- The learners from Star College High in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal were announced as the winners of the 20th National South African Youth Water Prize Competition (SAYWP).
- This follows their impressive water innovation that went to the core of modernising water resource management efforts in the country.
The competition, which took place in Gauteng on 16-17 May 2019, saw learners from all over the country impress adjudicators on innovations relating to water and sanitation.
The SAYWP is a Science and Technology based project and is coordinated by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS). The project started at provincial level and progressed to the national competition, where the winners were announced.
One of the aims of the project is to promote the protection of natural resources and to encourage youth to actively participate in integrated and community-based water resource management.
The winning project, the Hydro-Conservation, intends to reduce the quantity of water that is wasted in households across South Africa daily during showering and hand-washing.
In Stockholm, the South African winners will showcase their innovation, which will compete with learners from 30 countries from around the world for the Stockholm Junior Youth WaterPrize .
DWS Chief Director for Water Services and Local Water Management, Rex Mtileni, said the competition was a means of investing in young people so that they pursue careers in the water and sanitation sector.
“To date, there are about 342 schools that have participated in the competition. As a result of this, we now have 42 graduates who are now contributing to develop our country and 29 other young people are in tertiary [education]across the country where they are pursuing careers in the water and sanitation sector,” said Mtileni.
Author: Nicolette Pombo-van Zyl
This article was originally published on ESI Africa and is republished with permission with minor editorial changes.
Source: https://www.sanews.gov.za/