Armed with an innovative idea for reducing water waste at sports stadiums, Vasiliki Papadopoulou and Nefeli Christodoulou will be traveling to Stockholm in the coming days to participate in the Junior Water Prize 2026 international competition.
The two students from the Pancyprian Gymnasium of Nicosia won the national competition organized by the Water Museum of the Limassol District Local Government Organization and secured the coveted opportunity to represent our country in Sweden.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
“We’ve set the bar high; we’ll be competing against 35 other countries from around the world. We’ll be judged by a panel that will also come from all over the world and include judges from various countries, and we hope to win there as well.”
Vasiliki Papadopoulou, Student
Water Conservation on Sports Fields
Water conservation when watering sports fields was the focus of their research.
“We chose to focus on reducing water consumption. And as we know, water is the most important resource in our lives, and we consume a great many metric tons of it. That’s why we chose sports fields, where we use a huge amount of water every year. And we have a lot of them in Cyprus.”
Vasiliki Papadopoulou, Student
They gathered data, conducted research, and proposed a smart and cost-effective solution to address water overconsumption.
“Through our research, we saw that to water the fields, they used timers and relied on the experience of the field managers. So they might water the field, and then it might rain several hours later, resulting in a huge waste of water. And we wanted to solve this problem ourselves.”
Nefeli Christodoulou, student
The statistics they collected from the Latsia sports field show the extent of the waste in terms of water, energy, and maintenance costs.
“And we found that, in terms of water consumption, before our system was installed, 4,850 metric tons were being wasted, whereas now it’s 3,190 metric tons. As for operating hours, we can see a significant reduction, since the pumps used to run for 120 hours, and now they run for 15 hours. Of course, the percentages change every month, and these are simply examples we identified through our research.”
Nefeli Christodoulou, student
Nefeli and Vasiliki collaborated with researchers from various fields and experimented until they created their own smart device, aimed at proper watering and water conservation.
“Here we see our small controller, as we mentioned earlier. We have the Soil Moisture Sensor, which tells us the soil’s moisture levels. We have the Temperature and Humidity sensor, which measures the temperature and humidity in the air, in the atmosphere. We have the OLED display, which shows the readings from each sensor, and the Wi-Fi module, which sends the data we receive from the sensors to our app, so that the groundskeeper knows when to water and how much to water in order to achieve the results from machine learning.”
Vasiliki Papadopoulou, Student
They divided the field into eight zones, and each zone will be watered accordingly, based on the current data and its actual needs. The weather forecast will be taken seriously into account in the process.
“Normally, the entire field is watered using the same system. But with this approach, each zone will be watered differently. Based on this, each zone will be watered with the amount of water it needs and not with excess water, so that we do not waste water, because it is extremely valuable to us.”
The innovative device they created can also be used in public spaces, parks, golf courses, and even in agriculture.
“It’s very inexpensive, and all the sensors and the microcontroller are also low-power, so it’s very easy and simple to use.”
Vasiliki Papadopoulou, Student
A unique experience
As they themselves note, participating in the competition and bringing their idea to life offered them unique hands-on benefits that go beyond the confines of a traditional classroom.
“We got to meet scientists working at the Eratosthenes Observatory who study satellites—which felt a bit surreal. What other teenager gets to talk to someone about satellites? It was a very interesting experience. We visited the Latsia stadium nearby and spoke with the person in charge of the turf. There were so many wonderful experiences.I think they’ll stay with us for the rest of our lives.”
Nefeli Christodoulou, student
“I learned how to present in front of an audience with confidence, to collaborate with researchers, to conduct research, and to write essays. And, overall, I’ve gained a lot from this research.”
Vasiliki Papadopoulou, student
Supporting the students are their teachers and mentors, Melpo Pittara and Athos Petridis.
Watch Olga Konstantinou’s report:
