First edition of the Sebou Water Cycle Olympics

Organized by the Agence du Bassin Hydraulique du Sebou (ABHS), the Académie Régionale d’Éducation et de Formation de la région Fès-Meknès (AREF Fès-Meknès) and Living Planet Morocco (LPM), and financed by the Sebou Water Fund, the first edition of the Sebou Water Cycle Olympics came to a close at ABHS headquarters in Fès on March 22, 2022.

The first of its kind, this event took the form of a competition to raise awareness of the importance of freshwater for public elementary school located in the nine provinces of the Fès-Meknès Regional Academy of Education and Training.

Organized in celebration of World Water Day, whose slogan this year is “Groundwater, making the invisible visible”, the event took place in 3 stages. The first awareness-raising phase began on March 7, 2022, and enabled public elementary school in the Fès-Meknès region to prepare pupils by working on various themes linked to the water cycle and the need to protect water resources. A selection test was then organized remotely on March 15, 2022 to qualify the finalist schools representing the 9 provincial departments affiliated to the Regional Academy of Education and Training (Fès, Meknès, Ifrane, Moulay Yaâcoub, Taounate, Sefrou, El Hajeb, Boulemane and Taza).

The online event attracted the participation of 132 students from 92 schools in the Fès-Meknès region. The 9 pairs (50% girls and 50% boys) with the best scores in their respective Provincial Directorates were invited to the final test at the Sebou Basin Agency headquarters on March 22, 2022.

After opening remarks by representatives of AREF Fès-Meknès, the ABHS and the President of LPM, the participating students and their supervisors were given a presentation on the water cycle, water issues in Morocco and the prerogatives and missions of the ABHS.

The final phase of the Olympiad then began, with a course illustrating the various stages of the water cycle. Multiple-choice questions were posed to the various pairs as they went along. At the end of the final game, three schools won the 3 prizes in this first edition of the Sebou Water Cycle Olympics:

• The first prize (2 laptops) was won by 2 students representing the Provincial Directorate of Ifrane and affiliated to the Abdelkrim El Khettabi school (Azrou).
• The second prize (2 digital tablets and 2 Bluetooth headsets) was won by the 2 students representing the Taza Provincial Directorate and affiliated with the Beni Marine school.
• The third prize (2 digital tablets) was won by the 2 students representing the Sefrou Provincial Directorate and affiliated with the Al-Inbiaath school.

Following the success of this first edition, the organizers congratulated the supervisors and students for their distinguished participation, and hoped that the second edition would enable a larger number of Provincial Directorates to take part.