Engineers urged to bring sustainable solutions

Baboki Kayawe | Wednesday January 8, 2014 16:01

Dr Tiroyaone Tshukudu from BIH told Mmegi that the academia, science and engineering students from local colleges and universities of engineering and technology, as well as mining professionals are eligible to enter. Submissions can be made individually or as teams of three, while collaborations with foreign engineers are promoted in order to make concepts as universally relevant and diverse as possible.

While the Engineering and Mining (E&M) competition is intended to increase Batswana's motivation to innovate and also facilitate local research and development in mining and related technologies, the national bio & clean technology award encourages the use of numerous clean technologies, methodologies and services to address environmental concerns and challenges by providing solutions for sustainable development.

On the E&M challenge, Tshukudu said, 'The benefits include development of safer and more efficient mining processes. There is also a potential to creating more jobs and diversifying the country's economy.'

In addition, these designs could apply in various aspects from mineral exploration, mining, mineral processing to use mine effluents and waste.

The clean technology award on the other hand, in which the BIH has collaborated with the Southern African Innovation Support Programme (SAIS), focuses in areas of harvesting processing technology, commercial production, preservation innovations and packaging, waste management, clear coal utilisation, energy management technologies, systems energy efficiency and sustainable buildings among others. Moreover, the concepts are to have employment creation prospects, with the winners to be determined by a panel of both local and international experts.