From theory to practice when young researchers visited IVL

An innovative flood warning system earned Germany this year’s Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP). The competition is part of World Water Week, which is under way in Stockholm. On Wednesday, the young finalists visited IVL’s SWIC facility, and got to see how the innovative water treatment plant works.

We are proud of the innovative work being done at SWIC, and are excited to be able to share it with the young people. It’s an opportunity for them to see how the work is done in practice. Hopefully it will help them to see the breadth of water issues and reflect on the possibilities, says Mayumi Narongin-Fujikawa of IVL, Director of the Sjöstadsverket Water Innovation Centre (SWIC).

One of the visitors was Hidde Post Björlin from Svalöv, Sweden. His project was selected by the Swedish jury to represent Sweden in the competition.

It was an amazing experience to reach the semi-finals and then win. If I hadn’t won the Swedish SJWP, I think my project would have remained a secondary school project, but my experiences at World Water Week have inspired me to continue the work, he says.

His project involves measuring levels of the drug ibuprofen in algae, assessing its impact and exploring potential solutions. He first had the idea several years ago.

A teacher told me that fish in the Kattegat Sea had become sterile due to contraceptive pill residues. That thought stayed with me. I thought that there must be other substances being spread in nature, affecting things we may not see.

Hidde Post Björlin’s project competed with projects from over 40 countries, and the battle for first prize was fierce. In the end, Jana Stiller and Niklas Ruf from Germany were declared the winners for their flood warning project.

IVL’s expert in the jury for SJWP

The SJWP jury, which includes Alejandro Jimenez, group manager for IVL WASH Governance, cited that the project “addresses a critical challenge in the more frequent and larger floods we are seeing around the world. However for smaller watercourses, we often lack the data needed to provide real-time warnings. The students have not only built a working system and an app that informs experts and the general public, they are already working to scale up the system throughout their region, in consultation with several partners."

During their visit to SWIC, Jana Stiller and Niklas Ruf were still somewhat overwhelmed by the news of their win, which had been announced the previous evening.

We were very surprised, but of course delighted when we realized we had won. The competition was tough, and I am very impressed by all the projects. What perhaps made our project stand out is that it has already been implemented in practice, says Jana Stiller.

Inspired by a local flood

Jana Stiller and Niklas Ruf have been developing their project for several years, based on the situation in the town of Ochsenhausen where they live.

"We got the idea after a severe flood damaged our school. People from the municipality came to our school and asked if anyone was interested in finding solutions, and we were. This type of warning system will probably become even more important as climate change intensifies", says Niklas Ruf.

In addition to the prestigious first prize, the jury also awarded a Diploma of Excellence to Kagan Mehmet Ozkok from Turkey, for a project combining AI with public water conservation. Divyasri Kothapalli from the United Kingdom was voted winner of the People's Choice Award for her project on solar-powered water purification systems.

It was an honour and a great pleasure to be on the jury, and I was impressed by the quality of the young people's projects. Choosing a winner was a very difficult decision, says Alejandro Jimenez.

For more information, contact:
Mayumi Narongin-Fujikawa, mayumi.narongin@ivl.se, tel. +46 (0)10-7886596
Alejandro Jimenez, alejandro.jimenez@ivl.se, tel. +46 (0)10-7886632