Three young Rwandan entrepreneurs on Friday won a prize worth $2000 for the Rwanda Water and ICT Accelerator, a competition that focused on coming up with innovative ways to solve water problems in communities.

For one week, presented innovative solutions for urgent water problems in the urban environment.Dominique Mvunabandi whose group emerged the best with their ‘severe weather flooding and lightining’ in Musanze District, said the cash prize they won will help them broaden their application to help their region, which is prone to flooding and lightening.

Their focus will be early warning in cases where such calamities might be expected, to ensure damage is minimised.

"Our application aims to help residents of the volcanic region to cope with flooding and lightening by warning them early enough to take preventive measures,” he said.

After each team pitched its idea to an international jury of experts, the best two ideas were awarded.

Leoni Cuelenaere, the Dutch Ambassador to Rwanda urged winners to take advantage of the prize to expand their ideas to a broader market.

"You have good ideas that can bring change to the world; you should translate them into bigger business instead of targeting a small market. You should make them bring solutions to water related issues but also use them to increase your income,” she said.

The prize is meant to develop their idea further into a full proposal that could be supported by VIA Water, the Dutch programme that supports innovative water solutions in Africa.

The week-long intensive training course they followed was run by the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) under the VP Delta programme and IBM Research.

The second prize was awarded to the team that worked on developing a water tank, conveyer and app to provide smart water storage and delivery services.

The team will receive $1000 price or individual coaching to further develop their idea and they will have the opportunity to undertake a six week online training programme on business development.

The contest was organised as part of the VIA Water initiative financed by the Netherlands with view to stimulate innovative entrepreneurship in the water sector in seven countries in Africa, namely, Rwanda, Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique and South Sudan

editorial@newtimes.co.rw