Young Environment Reporters (YRE) Jessica Schembri and Samira Axiak’s emotionally-charged plea to save every last drop of water on the Maltese islands has placed second in the international YRE Competition.

The report, ‘Water in the Maltese Islands: Every drop counts’, was based on a water-conservation project at the duo’s school, Maria Regina College Secondary School Mosta, which was financed by the HSBC Water Programme – Catch the Drop. The Maltese entry competed against entries from 33 countries.  Winners were announced during a ceremony held in Denmark.

Another entry from Malta was a report, ‘Drying up our future?’, by Emma Degabriele a student at San Anton School. Malta’s third and last entry was in the video category and featured the grey water system in Malta. The filming expense for this video, titled ‘Save every drop’ was borne by HSBC. Entries to the YRE International Competition are coordinated in Malta by Nature Trust – Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) Malta.

Audrey Gauci, the YRE Malta coordinator said: “The support offered by HSBC Water Programme – Catch the Drop helps the students disseminate their work through school websites, blogs, social media, and on the international stage. This is a partnership that has been in place since 2014 and one that we are keen on continuing to expand into the future.”

YRE is an international programme that encourages students to conduct journalistic investigations on environmental issues and report to the local community via articles, photos and video clips.

In addition to the support of YRE, the HSBC Water Programme – Catch the Drop campaign also supported the Learning About Forests Programme (LEAF) with a grant of €500 to help Nature Trust – FEE Malta implement a tree planting project in various schools and localities.

Photocaption: Student participants in this year’s YRE International Competition pose with their certificates and trophies during the 2016-2017 YRE Malta awards ceremony