Adriana Alcantara Ruiz, Dalia Graciela Diaz Gomez and Carlos Hernandez Mejia from Mexico have been awarded the 2007 Stockholm Junior Water Prize for their project of using eggshells to treat waste water during the World Water Week from 10-18 August.
The students from the Cultural Institute of Paideia in Toluca, Mexico, received the Prize from the hands of H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria on behalf of the Stockholm Water Foundation. They also received 5000 US dollars scholarship and a crystal sculpture.
The Stockholm Junior Water Prize is presented each year to high-school age students for Outstanding water related projects that focus on topics of environmental, scientific, social or technological importance. The international honor is given to an individual or group who, like their 27 co-competitors, has been awarded the top prize among national competitions.
The motivation of the Nominating Committee for this year's winner is:
The Mexican team's project, the Elimination of PB(II) From Water Via BIO-Adsorption Using Eggshell, developed a novel approach to adsorb lead in industrial wastewater by utilizing eggshells, a locally abundant bio-organic waste material.
By mixing ground-up eggshells in a liquid lead solution, the young Mexicans successfully removed more than 90% of lead pollutants from liquid waste. This low-cost, time-efficient method provides an alternative solution for removing heavy metals, a pollutant and health hazard around the world from water. The quick and effective process can be applied in both small-scale industries and large industrial operations.
The Chinese team of Yang Guo, Junhong Wu and Sisi Yu received honourable mention for its project The Biochemical Detoxification of Heavy Metals and its Application to the Water-Soil Environment in the Agricultural Wetlands of the Pearl River Delta, China.
They are from Foshan No.2 High School in Guangdong Province, China.
By People's Daily Online Stockholm Correspondent Xuefei Chen
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