Clean water is a human right.
But millions across Africa don’t have it. With your help, we can fix this! The lack of clean drinking water takes lives, suppresses Africa’s growth, and keeps kids out of school. Do something — don’t sit this one out. R250,000 in prizes!
Apply your knowledge and make a difference. You have the idea, we have the resources to bring it to life. Together we can make clean drinking water affordable and reliable to all Africans.
Using your preferred medium (text, design, animation, Powerpoint, short video), submit as many ideas as you can on how to bring clean water to communities in Africa with little to no access to clean water.
What’s the situation today?
A lack of clean drinking water has had dire consequences for many Africans:
• Lack of clean water affects 334 million people living in Sub-Saharan Africa (more than the population of the United States). (one.org)
• 3.4 million people worldwide die each year from water-related disease. (water.org)
• The World Heath Organization estimates that 320 million productive working days and 443 million school days are lost each year
because of lack of clean water. (WHO)
• Clean water and poor sanitation are inextricably connected; lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate
equivalent to a jumbo jet crashing every four hours. (water.org)
How can you help?
Consider these types of solutions for inspiration (Please see the Technical Brief for details and examples of each type of solution):
1. Education:
How can we educate communities so they embrace clean water solutions?
2.Groundwater:
How can we give communities long-term access to groundwater?
3.Sanitation:
How can we improve access to clean water by improving sanitation?
4.Purification:
How can we provide people simple water treatment solutions?
5.Filtration:
How can we turn available water into drinkable water through filtration?
6.Solar:
How can we leverage the power of the sun to purify water?
7.Other:
Any other ways to address the main campaign topic?
Winning criteria:
Expert moderator criteria:
• Feasibility: Is this idea technically feasible within a one-year time frame?
• Scalability: How easily could this idea be scaled to reach more people?
• Impact: How many people will this solution impact?
Jury criteria: above plus:
• Cost/Value: Is the idea low in cost relative to the impact it will make?
• Overall innovativeness: Does this idea exist or is it a completely new innovation?
Prizes:
• A total of R250,000 will be awarded to the most promising proposals, as follows:
· In addition, $2,500 (about 25 prizes of R1,000 each) will be awarded in Spot Prizes during the Idea Generation phase.
· Spot prizes will include Early Bird, Most Constructive comments, Most Influential, Most Improved idea. So log on, vote and comment often!
Timeline:
The contest will be run in phases, as follows:
27 October 2014 – 11 December 2014: IDEATE AND VOTE:Enter ideas, comment & vote.
10 November 2014 – 11 December 2014: EXPERT REVIEW: Weekly batches of top-voted ideas will be assessed by our panel of experts, on a rolling basis.
19 – 30 January 2014: SHORTLIST: The top ideas will proceed to a panel of Judges
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the Water4Africa Challenge 2015