Muscat, Oman – 25 March 2019 – Wetskills Water Challenge Day 10
By Luisa Javier (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia) & Marsha Tack (Wageningen University)
Today is the last day of the pressure cooker Wetskills program; a day with mixed emotions. The last two weeks were very intense. We worked hard on the cases and had a lot of fun. With the adrenaline at the top, we rode into the bus and Marsha was the first to break the silence: “Music, please”.
We arrived to Sultan Qaboos University to the World Water Day, which topic was “Leaving no one behind”. We believe the theme was perfect for a closing ceremony, basically summarizing what we all achieved as a Wetskills family that was formed in these past ten days.
After the official opening remarks and listening to some singing verses of the Quran, lectures on water challenges in Oman start occurring one by one. We were amazed on how our proposed solutions are aligned with current water related problems in the region.
The special moment of announcing the winner arrived, shouts and screams were listened in the room. The winners presented the case and their pitch. The other teams were able to present their poster and pitch again to the important audience.
The pressure cooker was finally relieved! Besides the awards for the winning team, Matteo and Rachid both won the raffle of two huge boxes full with Omani fancy gifts. Time to relax, but also time to let the mixed emotions sink that we were all feeling in the last lunch we had together.
Good-bye letters, hugs, gifts, and a lunch full of nostalgic feelings. We walked for the last time throughout the University and we found that amazing person who has supported every day, Dr Ahmed. We climbed again into the bus and we could see Dr. Ahmed fully dressed in his traditional clothes, waving us to distance and making signs of tears with his hands. We were completely touched, until Marsha shout again: “Music, please!”
Now it is party time, we are writing the blog in the hotel singing and celebrating our results, but especially the winning team, who was………
Case number 2!!!!!!!!!! Their idea: Give a monetary value to groundwater!!! Congratulations to the team!
