The first ever Reed Elsevier Environmental Challenge held a celebration for its winners was held on Wednesday, 24 August 2011 during World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden.

Launched in July 2010, the RE Environmental Challenge encouraged innovative ideas to improve access to safe and sustainable water supply for communities where it is presently at risk.  Proposals had to be sustainable and scalable, and demonstrate practical applicability and community-level engagement. 

YS Chi, vice chairman of Elsevier, welcomed a range of guests – including water experts from companies and NGOs – to the event. He noted Reed Elsevier’s growing portfolio of products and services that advance environmental knowledge and understanding.  “We provided access to our products to over 100 registrants from more than 50 countries, to help the formulation of proposals,” YS said.

Professor Gang Pan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who was one of the judges, shared his belief in the importance of competitions such as the RE Environmental Challenge in spotlighting projects that focus on the socio-economic dimensions of access to water.

Second place winner Jenna Forsyth took to the stage to describe her project which focuses on low-resource chlorine generation, to address unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation in the Nyanza province of western Kenya.  In partnership with the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, Jenna will use the $25,000 prize money to run a school-based pilot involving a prototype chlorine generator using salt, water and battery power to generate chlorine for water disinfection.  On a single battery charge, the device can run for 200 cycles, generating 40,000 litres of clean water.

Will Brehm, representing the Tagore-SenGupta Foundation who won the first place $50,000 prize, spoke proudly about the project he will be leading in Cambodia to install twelve community-level arsenic removal units in remote villages and schools, where arsenic groundwater contamination is rife. The technology, which has been tested in India, will provide local employment in the construction and installation of units and in the caretaking phase of the project. The arsenic removal units use regenerable adsorbents and do not require electricity or costly maintenance.

Guests were given a copy of the Elsevier journal Water Research, which featured information about the winning projects.

The RE Environmental Challenge supports the Millennium Development Goal to reduce by half the number of people without access to safe drinking water, and to stop unsustainable exploitation of water resources.  The next RE Environmental Challenge will open in October 2011.

Further details on the Challenge and winners can be found here.