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The stakes were high at the SA Youth Water Prize Provincial Competition (SAYWP) hosted by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) in Gauteng as schools from the province vied for the coveted prize, which put them in line to represent the province in the national annual Junior Water Prize Competition scheduled to take place later this year.

The competition, which is the brainchild of the DWS and has been running for over 20 years, was held at the Roodeplaat Training Centre, in Pretoria, on 16 May 2022.

The South African Youth Water Prize is a youth competition of the Department of Water and Sanitation that targets grades 9 to 11 learners to identify problems related to water in their school and communities, conduct research and come up with innovative recommendations to solve the problems.

The aim of the competition is to encourage leaners to protect water resources and to use water efficiently. The competition also aims to motivate learners to pursue careers in water and sanitation management.

Adjudicators at the competition were treated to high calibre presentations as learners came up with different presentations, which provided solutions to challenges in the water and sanitation sector.

Through the competition, the Department offers tertiary education bursaries and cash prizes to the winner. The competition is collaboration between the Department and the Stockholm Water Foundation in Sweden.

DWS’s Shoki Malepe, the coordinator of the competition in Gauteng, praised the standard of the competition as being very good, but said there was still a lot to be learnt.

Malepe added that provincial winner would represent Gauteng province during the national SAYWP competition scheduled to take place later this year where all provincial winners will compete against each other. 

“The national winner will then represent South Africa at the Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition in Sweden, which will be taking place at the same time as the Stockholm World Water Week”, she said.

To adjudicate the work submitted by learners for the competition, Mhlabaze said the work was distributed to adjudicators and communication between them took place to discuss it and then scored the participants.

Issued by the Department of Water & Sanitation