Respect your environment at Delta Park Expo

Delta Environmental Centre hosted the Energy Conversations Expo on 1 October.

The expo caters for the culmination of schools from all over Gauteng that have taken energy-saving campaigns and successfully implemented their projects.

They launched the Energy Dialogues Programme, now known as the Energy Conversations Programme in 2010 with funding from Shell SA

Marketing. The programme consists of four main initiatives which are to promote basic education, re-orient and revise education programmes, develop public understanding and awareness and to provide practical training.

A representative from the Department of Education Xolisa Luthi gave a powerful speech where he urged the students to, ”Challenge your

mind and challenge you heart…pick the brightest star in the sky, hold that star and share the light with others.” Luthi suggests the change in the respect we lack for our environment starts with the youth on three levels; bellow, above and inside of you.

Shell Social Investments representative Ntobeko Magadime and Delta Park honorary chairmain Don Macey were judges for the afternoon. The groups were arranged into Grade 9 and Grade 11 and each school represented their project to be judged and viewed by guests.

A particularly interesting project by Kempton Park High School Grade 11 pupils was the reuse of stackable plastic bottles that are used

as bricks to build houses; currently they have built two classrooms.

The winning school for Grade 9 was Lingitjhudu Secondary School Grade 9, who won for their ‘pressure cooker’ which is a pot wrapped in foil, in a blanket and then put in a box. This allows for the food to remain hot and continue to cook as the heat does not escape.

The winner for the Grade 11 section was Edward Phatudi High School , their project consisted of solar-powered energy that would decrease the use of illegal connections.

Details: Delta Environmental Centre, www.deltaenviro.org.za or 011 888 4831.