Winning poster promotes value of groundwater

Kannemeyer Primary School principal Ridwan Samodien with poster competition winner Lami-ha Solomons.

Lami-ah Solomons, from Kannemeyer Primary School in Grassy Park, has taken home the first prize in a groundwater-poster competition.

The Grade 5 pupil showed off her winning poster during the launch, at Kirstenbosch on Monday November 15, of the Table Mountain Water Source Partnership, a public-private campaign to promote the protection of Cape Town’s groundwater.

The event was hosted by the Danish Embassy and the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF-SA).

The poster competition was held over three months in primary schools from Simon’s Town to Strand, raising awareness about the importance of groundwater.

“It’s the first time I’ve won a competition. My friends and I enjoyed the experience and learnt a lot about groundwater. I was happy to make our school proud,” said Lami-ah. She won a tablet for herself and an interactive whiteboard and cash prize for her school.

Lami-ah’s poster will be converted into a billboard and displayed at 35 petrol stations in the wider Cape Town area to spread awareness about groundwater, which is increasingly being abstracted from aquifers, according to Damien Hewitt, from Greenpop, an NGO that runs environmental awareness projects.

WWF worked with Greenpop to develop groundwater awareness campaigns in primary schools.

Klaudia Schachtschneider, from WWF’s freshwater programme, said the impending Day Zero threat of the 2018 drought had shown how important it was use to used underground water sustainably.

“With good aquifer access in the Cape, groundwater increasingly became an alternative source of water for many businesses and homes. However, this invisible and seemingly abundant groundwater is not an infinite resource, she said.

“We hope that the awareness and knowledge gained through this competition process will not remain in their classes but spread to the learners’ homes and neighbourhoods.”