A high school in George in the Garden Route has scooped a national prize in the South African Youth Water competition for their water conservation invention.

Grade 10 learners Unam Halam and Faith Claasen from Heather lands high school came up with a solution that stops water from running automatically when communal taps in schools and communities are left open or dripping.

Both will be jetting off to Sweden in August for the international leg of the competition.

“Wow, you have made us proud as the Department and as the country. We cannot afford to lose even a single drop of water therefore your invention is what the country needs right now. We all know that South Africa is a water-scarce country so every drop counts,” Western Cape Head of the Department of Water and Sanitation, Zanele Bila-Mupariwa explains.

Learners were expected to identify a water related problem, take actions and recommend solutions. The competition began at provincial level, proceeded to national level and the national winner will represent South Africa in the Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) in Sweden to compete with learners from 30 countries.

Thank you Reuters for this article