Children think much more out of the box and are smarter than we sometimes think
Interview with Ger Pannekoek, Business Developer at EWB
On 11 November 2017, 600 children from 18 cities around the world came together to work in parallel and design innovative concepts for Water, the theme of the third Global Children’s Designathon. The children worked on topics such as water shortage, floods, water pollution and endangered habitats. One of the concepts that children came up with is made into a real-size prototype called D-RAIN. According to the children inventors, the perfect solution for floods in cities. These rain-permeable street tiles are absorbing rainwater, filter it and then store it under ground in a big reservoir so that it can be re-used in the city.
D-RAIN is invented by Amalia (10), Rosa (7), Shira (9) and Tessa (10). The real-size prototype is constructed by Fien Dekker using the Rain(a)Way tiles and shells as a filter.
This is not the first time that children come up with the same concept as an adult did. For example, EWB is currently working on a similar concept in which underground rainwater collecting and purification systems are the solution for the negative effects of climate change. Heavy rainfall, heat stress, drought and salinisation are just a few examples of this. Ger Pannekoek, business developer at EWB, told us more about this.
Can you describe your design and tell us what problem it solves?
We collect underground rainwater in a reservoir made of shells. The water enters the reservoir through water-permeable tiles or through pits, which are normally connected to the sewer. However, in our system the rainwater does not go to the sewer, but is temporarily stored in the shells (in 1m3 shell you can hold about 700 liters of water). Water runs through the shells into a drain, which is covered with purifying minerals. As a result, the soil and the groundwater are not contaminated. To be able to reuse the water we must then extract bacteriological pollution in an underground bioreactor. Finally, water is ready to be used for watering plants, sports fields or be used as a play-water. In this way not only do we solve flooding, but we also have a solution for drought and heat stress.
We are curious about your reaction on D-RAIN. Most adults don’t take children’s ideas seriously, perhaps because they sometimes seem unrealistic. What do you think about D-RAIN?
I think it’s a very good idea. In fact, it looks a lot like our own invention. We do not purify rainwater through the tile, but through a mix of shells, minerals and the bioreactors. What I particularly like is that the children looked further than solving just the flooding. They also thought about the fact that you should do something with that water. Fresh water is, after all, more expensive and more scarce. So why should we pump it over the dike and release into the sea if we can also do something useful with it? Adults can learn something from that. Most of the time municipalities work to solve the most urgent problem, namely flooding, while the equally serious problems such as desiccation and salinization, receive much less (political) attention.
Did you expect that children could come up with such a design?
Yes. Children think much more out of the box and are smarter than we sometimes think.
How do you perceive children’s creativity and what do you think adults could learn from it?
What we can learn from children in particular is not to look at problems in an unilateral way. As a society we can learn a lot from it. Why only solve flooding, if we can solve other water-related issues at the same time too? That may cost a bit more but it delivers so much more to society. Everyone is always talking about integrated solutions, but when push came to shove, people still go for what is familiar, easy and cheap. Children are actually much more able to think creatively and integrally.
I would like to invite the children who invented the D-RAIN to visit us at the WaterStraat and give us their feedback on our design so that we can improve our concept.
Thank you Ger!
