 TVS School, Madurai, bags Volvo Award
Volvo has announced the Volvo Adventure Project finalists from schools across India. Students from TVS Higher Senior Secondary School, Madurai, have won the national finals of the Volvo Adventure Project awards in India. The team will now go on to compete in the global finals to be held at
Goteborg, Sweden.
The Volvo Adventure Project 2006 is an international educational programme in partnership with UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) that recognises and rewards environmental activities among students who are the decision-makers of tomorrow.
This year, students from TVS HSS School, Madurai, bagged the first prize, competing with over 50 Indian schools - the prize-winning entry being their project on 'Wastage of drinking water'. This team has won an all-expenses paid trip to attend the global finals of the Volvo Young Environmentalists Awards in Goteborg, Sweden. The team's project was found to be simple yet effective in the task of conserving precious and scarce water resources, and improving water availability within the limited resources available.
The second prize was jointly awarded to Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School (PSBB), Chennai, for their project "Milestones in Chennai's waste management", along with the team 'Plastic Assasins' from Hyderabad for their project promoting 'Eco-friendly bags'. Both the teams will receive cash grants in support of their projects. The PSBB team took up the problem of the Pallikaranai marsh being used as a dumping ground for garbage and the harmful effect this had on the environment.
Eric Leblanc, managing director, Volvo India, said in Chennai, "Volvo initiated this Global Young Environmentists Awards to encourage young people to proactively participate in environmental education programmes and gain international recognition through their local initiatives. It's a matter of great pride to see the level of participation growing each year. Most assuring is the strong faith and belief these young people exhibit through their projects - in their ability to influence their communities towards a better environment. I would like to congratulate the students from TVS HSS School, Madurai, and wish them luck for the execution of their environmental projects on a global platform."
Eminent judges of international fame in the field of environment constituted the jury - Dr. Madhav Gadgil, Professor, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, India; Barbara James, publisher, information worker on environmental issues and former managing editor for The Times Index; John Baines, consultant, trainer and author in the areas of education and environment development; Wayne Talbot, renowned nature conservationist.
Dr. Madhav Gadgil, who also judged the competition, in his comments on the winning team, said, "The project from TVS School, Madurai, addresses a concrete and immediate environmental problem for the students, namely, wastage and consequent unavailability of drinking water in later part of the school hours. Having verified that there should be adequate water for the student body if it was efficiently used, the students identified the root causes, namely leaky taps, waste of water while drinking with cupped hands and use of water for non-drinking purposes. The solutions were straightforward, but involved disciplined behaviour on the part of all concerned. These were implemented leading to a very substantial reduction in water requirements, ensuing drinking water supply till the end of school hours. It is a neat model of how social discipline and cooperation could alleviate many ofthe world's environmental problems."
There were many projects from India that could be quite easily classified as international class. These projects ranged across a variety of topics - Solid waste management, Recycle of plastic, Solution to pesticide pollution, Propagating the use of bio-diesel, Rainwater harvesting, Running a systematic campaign on saving the tiger and many others.
The winners from the TVS School will now travel to Sweden to present their environmental project to a jury of international experts, where they will compete with the first-prize winners from countries all over the world. Besides, they will also get a chance to showcase their project to the world by publishing it on the Volvo Adventure website
(www.volvoadventure.org). The fust three position winners of the international leg of this competition will win cash awards of $ 10,000, $ 6,000 or $ 4,000 respectively to fund the environmental project.
The Volvo Adventure programme, started in 2002, is now running for the fourth consecutive year. It is a joint project run by the Volvo Group, Volvo Car Corporation and UNEP. Volvo Adventure is open to young people around the world aged between 10 and 16 years. Teams must constitute between two to five young people with one adult as supervisor.
R Rangaraj
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