Stockholm Junior Water Prize Participants Put Ideas into Action
January 26, 2011
By Erin Wright
Editor's Note: ITT Corporation, Black & Veatch, and Water For People are supporting the improvement, refinement and implementation of two award-winning student water projects that received national titles in the 2010 Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition, one of the world's most prestigious student competitions for water-related research. With this support, national winners from Ghana and the Netherlands will be able to implement their projects, both of which provide new insights into ensuring access to safe drinking water in the developing world. The two student teams met this month in Ghana to launch their work.
Thinking Ahead
We walked into the Elmina Castle near the city of Cape Coast in Ghana, and I heard one of the members of the Dutch team say, “Shame on me! But it’s my history.” We were taken back in time to learn about and envision the horrors of the slave trade in Ghana—history the Dutch shares, as they occupied and controlled Ghana’s people and natural resources during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. As devastating as this history is for much of the world, I thought of the transformation that has taken place and the commitment I see to having an equitable and just world.
The Stockholm Junior Water prize is an annual competition that recognizes young scientists from around the world to encourage their continued interest in water issues that connect human and environmental health and sustainable development. Winners of national competitions attend World Water Week in Stockholm to compete for the prize.
Evelien van Zwol, Lianne Siemensma, and Wouter van der Wal were finalists from the Netherlands. The three youth discovered that radical particles from ozone have serious potential to disinfect contaminated water, and created a water pump that used this ozone to disinfect drinking water.
Raymond Bentum and Theophilus Asiedu Sagoe were finalists from Ghana. They educated and raised the awareness of the Nyameso community of 1,600 people to take action to improve their environment and to design a water treatment plant using local materials. Since their participation in Stockholm, Archimedes Bruno Andries and McClean David Baidoo have also joined the team.
Although neither team was awarded the international title, they walked away with the chance to breathe life into their projects. Their response when they learned about the opportunity to actually implement their projects? “It’s a lot of pressure.”
Yes, of course they feel anxious about the pressure they face for their projects to work, because it has the potential to have real impact in people’s lives—those nerves are entirely understandable for anyone, much less 17 and 18 year olds. Yet, they are set on getting these projects to work—they want to have an impact, they want to better lives.
With the financial and managerial support from Water For People, and our partners, ITT Corporation and Black and Veatch, the youth have this chance. They have received technical assistance from experts and professionals in the water and sanitation sector, which they claim to be at once intimidating yet empowering. They are inspired to follow in these experts’ footsteps and to also have the ability to give back and encourage others as they chart their own course.
The Dutch team traveled to Ghana to meet the Ghanaian team for the first time in January of 2011. It was Evelien, Lianne, and Wouter’s first time to a developing nation, and they described it as feeling as if they were in a movie—but all of a sudden it had become real. Everyone was quite shy at first but by the end of the week transformation had occurred – there was a lot of cultural exchange—discovering each other’s daily lives, sharing languages, and even witnessing one of the Ghanaian youth has his very first swimming lesson by the Dutch. They also had the first opportunity to discuss the projects in person, which was considerably helpful. The gathering also served to recharge their batteries and gain a new motivation for their projects, now including the support of others their age that have the same desire to better lives through improving water and sanitation for communities around the world. Even more, they have talked with the community members who will be impacted by their work, memories that will help keep them moving forward in the coming months as they work towards finalizing their projects.
As they progress forward, the Dutch youth have now set out to find the right piezo element (crystal which sparks the creation of ozone within the container with the help of energy created by the use of the hand pump), to measure the amount of ozone created, and to install the ozone container within a water pump that the community will use.
Meanwhile, the Ghanaian youth have set out to construct the water distribution system they proposed. Using local materials, they will continue to develop their water filtration prototype, increasing its size to allow for more water retention within the system. Ultimately, they will dig the well deeper in the community, put in their water filter and treatment system next to the water source, and then install pipelines for distribution of the water to several communal water pumps in the community.
One of these pumps will be the site for collaboration between the two teams—the Ghanaian youth’s system will treat the water then get it to the pump. A community member using the pump will trigger the disinfection of the water by ozone, as developed by the Dutch team.
There’s the technology piece. But that wasn’t enough for the youth. Both teams recognize the importance of community—their buy-in for the projects, their continued presence and involvement, and their understanding of all aspects of the water treatment and disinfectant systems so they can maintain the parts and efforts after the youth have gone. Therefore, the Dutch and Ghanaian youth will work together to make sure that culturally—and environmentally—relevant training and outreach materials are in place to inform the community about the projects so that they will also feel ownership for the water system.
Although the two teams are on separate continents again, they have a plan in place for their continued collaboration in the upcoming months. Come summer 2011, they will again meet in Ghana to complete the installation of their combined system, test and measure water samples, and share the results with the community.
Are they anxious? Yes. But they’re excited for the opportunity. It’s their history, and they embrace the motto of the Ghanaian youth’s school – dwin hwe kan, or “think ahead.”
What do you think?
