Two Formentera pupils snag prizes for work on water cycle

entrega-premis-aqualia1Two pupils from local primary schools —CEIP Sant Ferran de ses Salines's Pablo Wenham Martínez and Ana Burches, of CEIP Mestre Lluís Andreu— have been named finalists in seventeenth Concurs Digital Infantil (Digital Kids Contest). The contest is put on by Aqualia, which implements Formentera's municipal water service. The two children’s drawings were picked from a pool of over 7,200 submissions from Spanish cities where Aqualia provides service. All told, 250 children were celebrated for their work.

Alejandra Ferrer and Susana Labrador, Formentera's president and culture conseller, respectively, were joined by the head of Aqualia's operations on the island, Maria del Mar Yern, in applauding the pair’s achievement and presenting each artist with a smartwatch. President Ferrer saluted Aqualia for its initiative and said local schools deserved praise too for taking part in the contest, which works to educate children about the importance of a resource which, according to the president, "is as scarce as it is vital".

Organisers say the competition’s overlap with World Water Day is no accident, and describe the idea behind the competition as “getting kids thinking about managing the water cycle responsibly, and about the hard work that goes into bringing it into people's homes, not to mention cycling it back out in a way that’s sustainable”.

The year three and four pupils who took part in this year's contest learned the ropes as researchers, pinpointing the source of the water we consume every day, then figuring out where it goes when we've finished using it. To that end, a website called "Water Investigators" (www.investigatorsdelaigua.cat) offered children vast educational materials about managing the whole water cycle, including a special section on the Sustainable Development Goals and Aqualia's commitment to the 2030 Agenda.


13 November 2019
Department of Communication
Consell de Formentera