mbulelo smpofu
Raymond Jaravaza, raymondjaravaza@gmail.com
TASKED to come up with a school project that could compete against innovations made by other students across the country, three girls from Riverdale Academy in Bulawayo decided to tackle waste pollution in dams and rivers.
To better understand water pollution, the young learners collaborated with city dam authorities.
Concerned about the waste floating in rivers and dams, they decided to find a solution. Their goal was to develop a practical solution to water pollution while impressing judges at an innovation and robotics competition in Harare two weeks ago.
Twelve schools from across the country participated, each sending two teams—boys and girls—to compete in the innovation and robotics categories.
Riverdale Academy came second while another Bulawayo School, Sizane High School took home the third position.
Chronicle recently caught up with the victorious Riverdale Academy teams and they shared their stories of how they worked hard to come up with the two winning projects.
Girls team leader, Bongiwe Sibanda (14), said water pollution is a threat to the ecosystem so they decided to come up with an innovation that will help eradicate the problem.
“We are young school children but that does not mean that we cannot see the damage that plastic bottles, food containers, and other types of water waste polluters cause in dams and rivers,” she said.
“So, we decided to come up with the Water Waste Trapper (WWT), an innovation that can be used to clean dams and rivers.
“We worked with officials from Hillside Dams and they were very helpful in showing us how waste pollution is a problem there and the efforts that they make to keep the dams free of waste such as plastic bottles.”
Hillside Dams is owned by the Bulawayo City Council with Hillside Dams Conservancy, a non-profit organisation, responsible for the upkeep of the landscape. It was declared a National Monument in 1942 and plays a big role in the conservation of the environment.
The Water Waste Trapper was made using readily available resources as learners are encouraged to use materials at their disposal and spend minimally when coming up with their innovations.
“The WWT can pick up waste such as plastic bottles that float on dams and rivers, is controlled remotely, and can work even when it’s raining,” she said.
To keep their innovation eco-friendly, the WWT is installed with what the young innovators called a “buzzer.”
“The buzzer is meant to send faint sounds that chase away fish, frogs, and other marine creatures from the area where the WWT will be working. The whole idea of coming up with the WWT was for people to be able to clean dams and rivers in an eco-friendly manner so that marine life is not harmed,” said Sibanda.
The learners said they do not want the WWT to be expensive so that homeowners with swimming pools on their properties, owners of dams like municipalities, and established farmers can buy the WWT.
The boys’ team did not disappoint as they came up with an innovation in the robotics competition that can retrieve objects or carry out marine life rescue operations in deep waters such as the oceans.
Team leader Takura Mapfumo (15) said teamwork was the key to their victory as they faced stiff competition from other learners in the robotics project.
“Our project is called Hammer One and 15 of the tasks we performed included saving a scuba diver and a shark trapped in coral reefs in the ocean as well as identifying different marine creatures in the water,” said Mapfumo.
“All 12 teams had to perform the same tasks using their robotics innovations and the judges used our performances to come up with the winners.
“As a team, we did make some minor mistakes but we quickly moved on from the mistakes and kept doing all our tasks to the best of our abilities.”
Mr Nigel Akimu, the head of the science department at Riverdale Academy as well as the patron for the Robotics Club, said the school encourages and supports their learners to think outside the box in coming up with innovations that can help save the world.
“It’s important to let the learners dream big and as a school, our role is to support them in all the projects that they want to embark on.
“Overall, the Riverdale Academy team came second in a tight competition that had 12 schools from all over Zimbabwe,” said Mr Akimu.
The winning Riversdale Academy teams comprised Israel Klein, Limpo Lutangu, Mitchelle Chemhere, Tinotenda Sithole, and the girls’ team leader Bongiwe Sibanda. Deidre Ndlovu, Nonhle Moyo, the boys’ team leader Takura Mapfumo, and Ogechukwu Anigwe also made the teams.
The teams were mentored by a non-governmental organisation called Sciency, which assists learners from several schools in Bulawayo with innovation and robotics projects.
