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Uae’s Zayed Sustainability Prize Encourages Students Transform Water-Scarce School in Morocco | |
| Staff Writer |
The UAE’s global award for recognising excellence in sustainability –The Zayed Sustainability Prize has helped motivate students at Al Amal Junior High School in Morocco to develop a reliable source of clean drinking water and a self-sustaining irrigation system for their school garden.
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“We used to drink from a well connected to the school, but shared it with the local community, so the school suffered shortages, especially in summer. Sometimes we would go a whole day without finding water to drink,” said Ilham Qouissem, one of the participants said.
Al Amal Junior High School is a rural boarding school located in the small town of Sidi Boubker, in Rehamna province of Morocco which is one of the few regional schools with an academic focus on agriculture. The school’s garden encourages students to grow plants, make observations and conduct experiments.
However, the water shortage negatively impacted the garden because plants died due to lack of water, leaving an empty plot of land and depriving students of learning opportunities in the sweltering heat.
Khadija Tanan, a Grade 11 student at Al Amal, said: “The most important lesson we learned through this experience is the idea of preservation. Water is scarce in our region, so we must preserve and not waste the water we use in our daily lives.” The water shortage meant the school’s boarding facilities had to remain closed, forcing over 100 students who lived up to 28km away to make a long, arduous commute each day.
On getting to know of the Zayed Sustainability Prize, the students and faculty started thinking of innovative solutions to solve water scarcity. This proposal to generate water through clean energy and sustainably revive the school’s garden. The project restored an existing – but defunct - well located near the school to provide drinking water. They installed solar panels to supply the energy needed to pump water from the well to the school.
This year, 650 students have enjoyed water from the restored well and the school i sno confident of opening to the world. Building the basin gave the students with a first-hand learning experience.
The school has managed to store more than 120 tonnes of water from the harvest basin so far.
The Zayed Sustainability Prize has allowed students to apply for several projects in Morocco.