Water and Sanitation Department youth competition take two Kimberley teenagers to Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition
The Department of Water and Sanitation, along with the Northern Cape Provincial Department of Basic Education has bid farewell to two teenagers from the Emang Mmogo Comprehensive School in Kimberley who are flying the South African flag high in Sweden, as part of the Stockholm World Water Week which will get underway from 20-24 August 2023.
The 14-year-olds, Kelebogile Abrahams and Mahlohonolo Mosia will participate in the Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition which brings together young minds from 30 countries across the globe to pitch the best water saving innovations which can be implemented to ensure water security in their respective countries.
The duo has conceptualised an innovative project geared towards ways to reduce water leaks and enhance water conservation in their school and surrounding communities, and amply named it the Water Police Project.
They won the South African Youth Water Prize competition in May this year, spearheaded by the Department. The competition, a call-to-action programme, challenges secondary and high learners to identity a water problem in their communities and come up with innovative and technology-based solutions to address those challenges.
The learners compete amongst each other on a district level, then move on to compete with their counterparts from different schools across the country on a national level and the winners are sent to Sweden for the Stockholm Junior Water Prize competitions.
Besides the trip to Sweden, the teams that come third and second place are awarded comprehensive bursaries by the Department to pursue studies in the water and sanitation field.
“We would like to win and make our country proud, but more than anything, what we would like to see happen is for our project to be refined and implemented. Not just in Kimberley but in different parts of the country,” said Mosia, who aims to study in the fields of science and engineering one day.
Adding to Mosia’s sentiments, Abrahams said that she also has an interest in the water-related sphere and hopes to one day study until PhD level.
“I have not yet made a final decision as to what I want to study but the bursary offered to us by the Department has given me a head start, which is something I had never thought in my wildest of dreams that it could happen,” she expressed.
Meanwhile the Department has wished the duo well and committed to working together with the Department of Basic Education as a means to get young minds to develop an interest in the sector to help convene the much-needed solutions required to address water challenges.
Enquiries:
Wisane Mavasa
Cell: 060 561 8935
E-mail: mavasaw@dws.gov.za
