Pretoria - Three learners from Limpopo, who won the South African Youth Water Prize (SAYWP) competition, will this weekend jet off to Stockholm in Sweden to represent South Africa at the annual World Water Week.
The SAYWP is one of the projects that the department is implementing in its education programme called 2020 Vision for Water Education Programme.
The project is aimed at educating Grade 9-11 learners about efficient use of water and protection of water resources.
During this year’s SAYWP competition held in Pretoria on 2 June 2017, the 16-year-old learners, Mokgotho Temogelo Thami, Mmola Desmond Kutullo and Nkwane Wayne Luka, who are in Grade 11 at Lebeko Senior Secondary School in Phalaborwa, produced a water conservation device that will help schools and communities to save water.
The devise uses two aspects, a sensor and a timer. The sensor senses a hand/s to turn the system on to discharge water, and subsequently, the timer is set to discharge water for a certain period/volume.
In addition, to the system, a soak-away material is added to the system to absorb leaking water from the tap.
The system also recharges the groundwater and refills the water table/tank underneath.
Most of the materials used to build this system were donated, while other items were collected from rubbish bins.
As part of celebrating the learners’ achievement, the Department of Water and Sanitation together with the Limpopo Department of Education will on 25 July 2017 hold a farewell function at Protea Hotel, The Ranch in Polokwane, as the learners will not only represent the province of Limpopo in Sweden, but the entire country. – SAnews.gov.za
