DOWASCO awards Water Week competitors

The Dominica Water and Sewerage Company (DOWASCO) has awarded the winners of its Water Week competitions which led up to World Water Day on March 22^nd. The theme for this year was “Leaving No One Behind, Water for All” which signified that every living thing should have access to potable water.

A number of schools participated in the activities which included poster, essay and debating competitions, and were awarded prizes at a special ceremony held at UWI auditorium on April 1^st, 2019.

The participating schools included Saint. Mary’s Academy (SMA), Convent High School (CHS), Christian Union Primary School (C.U.P.S.), Orion Academy, Newtown Primary School, Baroness Patricia Scotland Primary School, Berean Christian Academy and Dominica State College (DSC).

“I believe it is quite fitting to award all of the winners and participants who took part in our various activities and this year we were able to really pull off our essay competition, our debate and our poster competition in a much bigger way than we did in previous years and I do hope that sets the benchmark for it to continue to improve over the years to come,” Public Relations Officer of DOWASCO, Edward Registe stated.

He added, “I was very much amazed that many of the students who came to our exhibition were well informed about water conservation techniques. Even the little preschoolers knew that they must not waste water. So, I think we’re doing something good.”

Registe said for future water weeks, DOWASCO will continue to bring necessary information and continue its efforts to educate the public on proper conservation of water.  

Water Resources Officer of DOWASCO, Louise Alfred gave an overview of the week of activities.

“Primary and secondary school students took part in an essay and poster competition. For the essay, students were given this year’s theme and they were to do a poster depicting what the theme meant to them,” she said.

“The topic for the primary essay competition was “Water is out in your community for a month due to scarcity issues; how would you overcome this challenge?” For the secondary school students, the topic was “It is the year 2050 and Dominica is being faced with a water scarcity crisis. You are the minister responsible for water resources management, what steps would you take to ensure sustainability and water for all citizens in the face of this crisis.”

Other activities for the week included a visit by close to 500 primary and secondary school students to the DOWASCO Antrim treatment plant and the earth tank at Morne Daniel and a debate between two teams of DSC students on the topic “Be it resolved that the water sector should be regulated similarly to the telecommunications and energy sectors”.

  A talk at UWI open campus on development of potable water in Dominica with Dr. Lennox Honey church and two exhibitions at the Windsor park forecourt and DOWASCO’s office in Portsmouth.

Alfred said overall, the activities were a success and expressed appreciation for the creativity and efforts of the various schools and students.

The results for the different competitions are as follows:

Poster Competition

1^st place primary-  Josiah Alexander, Christian Union Primary School

2^nd place primary- Lioni Andrew, Newtown primary school

1^st place secondary- Hilary Nigel Lawrence, St. Mary’s Academy

2^nd place secondary- Convent High School

Essay Competition

1st place primary- Ershell George, Baroness Patricia Scotland Primary school

2nd place primary- Jed Francis, Berean Christian Academy

1st place secondary- Hananel Valerie, St. Mary’s Academy

2nd place secondary- ZebadiJah Maxwell, Convent High School

Participation Prize- Orion Academy

Debate Competition

Winning team (opposting)- Kodie Jean-Jacques& Chalika Vidal

Proposing Team – Allyna Bernard & Angelique Dorival