GEORGE NEWS - After months of research, data collection, testing and retesting of their hypothesis, the hard work of two Grade 10 learners from Heatherlands High School, Unam Halam and Faith Claasen, has finally paid off.
The learners took part in the Department of Water and Sanitation's South African Youth Water Prize competition.
It is held annually and gives learners the opportunity to engage in solving water-related problems in both their school and communities.
After winning the provincial competition held in Cape Town earlier this year, the two girls and their teacher and mentor, Marissa Murphy, set off to Johannesburg to compete against learners from the other eight provinces.
After presenting their invention, followed by an intense questioning session by the judges (who are all professional scientists), the Western Cape was announced the overall winners.
Fully paid bursaries
By winning both the provincial and national competitions, Unam and Faith have won a fully paid bursary to study any water-related field at a university in South Africa, prize money and also participation in the Stockholm Junior Water Prize that takes place in Stockholm, Sweden at the end of August.
The learners are very excited about this opportunity.
Making a plan to save water
The main problem that Unam and Faith focused on was a tap that is being used by all the learners at their school.
In their own words, "We realised that many of the learners at our school are not aware of the importance of water conservation. We have seen how many learners drink water from the tap and just walk away without closing it, expecting the next person to do so. This has led to hundreds of litres of water being wasted every single day from one tap."
The two learners set out to invent a unit that can fit onto the tap and stops water wastage immediately.
"It is a very simple unit, but it is exactly the fact that it is made from already existing materials and is not very expensive, that impressed the judges. This showed them that solutions to our water-related problems need not be complex or expensive. To them, saving even one drop of water is very important," says Murphy.
'You made us proud'
The Western Cape head of the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), Zanele Bila-Mupariwa, congratulated the two learners and the school for bringing home this prestigious prize.
She said their invention is what the country needs right now as it cannot afford to lose a single drop of water.
"We all know that South Africa is a water-scarce country so every drop counts. You have made us proud as a department and as a country."
Bila-Mupariwa said she would like to see Unam and Faith's invention in use, irrespec-tive of the outcome of the international competition.
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