Margarita Dervine will represent Latvia in August at the prestigious International
Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition. In all, national winners from 30 countries will
compete for the honour, which includes USD 5,000 and a blue crystal sculpture in the
shape of a water droplet.
The international Stockholm Junior Water Prize finale will be held during the 2009 World Water Week
in Stockholm, August 16-22, the leading annual meeting place for the planet’s most urgent waterrelated
issues. Competing projects will be on display at the World Water Week exhibition hall, where
each finalist will be interviewed by a committee of international water experts. The Prize will be
presented to the winner on August 18 during a ceremony starting at 19.00 in the Stockholm
International Fairs and Conference Center.
The finalists are the winners of national Stockholm Junior Water Prize contests, which fielded a record
3,500 submitted projects worldwide in 2009. Finalists will represent the following countries: Argentina,
Australia, Belarus, Canada, Chile, China, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia,
Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Singapore,
Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, the United
States, and Vietnam.
This year marks the 13th year for the international Stockholm Junior Water Prize programme.
Laser Water Treatment
The Latvian project applied laser analysis in an innovative new way to evaluate water quality. The
research showed that the quality of water treatment is impacted by the concentration of coagulation
in the water. She concluded that lower levels of coagulation concentration worsen the quality of water
that undergoes treatment. Margarita’s findings can be applied in future evaluations on water quality
treatment and can potentially be used to improve the modelling of natural wastewater processes.
The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) administers the competition, which is sponsored
globally by ITT Corporation.
H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden is the Patron of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize.
More information:
National Organiser: Ilze Rudaka, +371 673 340 36, Ilze.Rudaka@riga.lv
SIWI: Josh Paglia, +46 8 522 139 96, josh.paglia@siwi.org, www.siwi.org/stockholmjuniorwaterprize.
High-resolution photos from the prize award ceremony will be available after 22.00 Central European
Time on August 18, at www.worldwaterweek.org.
SIWI – Independent and Leading-Edge Water Competence for Future-Oriented Action
The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) is a policy institute that contributes to international efforts
to find solutions to the world's escalating water crisis. SIWI advocates future-oriented, knowledge-integrated
water views in decision making, nationally and internationally, that lead to sustainable