An eco-friendly water purification system developed by University of Malta student Antoine Galea has won the first edition of the Innovation Challenge: Go Green, a competition in which young people aged between 17 and 30 had to identify an environmental problem, come up with a green innovative solution, assess its feasibility, and submit a proposal for evaluation.

Galea said that fresh water reserves around the world are being rapidly depleted, and finding innovative means of purifying contaminated water is an increasingly important challenge. His proposed ‘eco-purifier’ water purification system mimics natural systems by using micro and macro organisms to purify water. He also built two prototypes of the purifier and tested them with positive results.

Carlos Cañas placed second with his ‘Butterfly project’. He highlighted the environmental and health hazards posed by the littering of cigarette butts and suggested setting up a local network that would collect cigarette butts and recycle them into toxic-free plastic souvenirs.

David Sciberras came in third with his ‘Energy from sewage’ proposal, which would entail installing turbines in sewage and wastewater outflow pipes to generate electricity.

Galea won a trip to the European Conference on Sustainability, Energy and the Environment to be held in Brighton, UK, next month. The competition was organised by Aġenzija Żgħażagħ and the Edward de Bono Institute for the Design and Development of Thinking at the University.