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China wins water prize

Wang Hao, Weng Jie and Xiao Yi from China were awarded the prestigious 2006 Stockholm Junior Water Prize at a formal ceremony on Tuesday in the Stockholm City Conference Centre/Folkets Hus during the World Water Week in Stockholm. The students from Shanghai Nanyang Model High School received the prize from Crown Princess Victoria on behalf of the Stockholm Water Foundation. They also received a $5,000 scholarship and a crystal sculpture.

The Stockholm Junior Water Prize is presented each year to a high school age students for an outstanding water-related project focusing on topics of environmental, scientific, social or technological importance.

The international honour is given to an individual or group who, like their 26 co-competitors, has been awarded the top prize in national competitions. The national winners travel to Stockholm from all over the world. The citation by the nominating committee said: "The Chinese team, from Shanghai Nanyang Model High School, displayed originality, ingenuity and tenacity in its use of low-cost, ecologically friendly technology to restore a polluted urban river channel. To do so, the team took several steps. First, they dammed small sections of the highly polluted Caoxi river channel and removed the contaminated mud which was exposed. Second, oxygen-starved stretches of the river were revitalised through the use of floating aerators. Third, bushes and other bank-side plants were carefully fertilised with organic waste, irrigated, and used as biological barriers to block polluted runoff from the land. Finally, through a water quality monitoring programme, illicit sewage discharges were discovered, exposed, and eliminated. This tried-and-true method for river channel restoration gives great hope for similar successes with other streams in the 19-million-person Shanghai metropolitan area."

Also, Diplomas of Excellence were given to contestants from Japan and Sri Lanka. Satomi Kosho, Naomi Sugimoto and Sae Nishino were the contestants from Japan while the Sri Lankans were Mihirani Kethumalika, Uthpala Rathnayake and Chathurika Rathnayake. The Stockholm International Water Institute administers the competition on behalf of the Stockholm Water Foundation.

The international competition is sponsored globally by ITT Corporation.

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