South Africa’s Kiara Nirghin just won the world’s most prestigious science fair with a humble yet revolutionary idea born from fruit waste… proving that big problems sometimes have refreshingly simple answers.
Global (29 September 2016) – What started as a home experiment with some orange peels and avo skins has just earned Kiara Nirghin, a 16-year-old schoolgirl from Johannesburg, one of the biggest honours in global science.
This proudly South African teen has just been named the grand prize winner of the Google Science Fair, a global platform that celebrates the brightest young minds from around the world. The awards ceremony took place at the tech giant’s iconic Googleplex headquarters in Mountain View, California, and among all the finalists from every corner of the globe, Kiara’s invention stood out.
Using nothing more than food waste and a big idea, Kiara created a natural super-absorbent polymer (SAP) that helps soil retain water… up to hundreds of times its own weight. This means that even during the most intense droughts, farmers could keep their crops alive at a fraction of the cost.
And for this incredible breakthrough, she walked away with the grand prize and $50,000 (over R670,000) in scholarship funding to continue her work and studies.
But this isn’t just a story about science, it’s a story about purpose. When Kiara saw how drought was devastating communities across South Africa, she didn’t just feel sad or helpless. She got to work.
“I wanted to minimise the effect that drought has on the community, and the main thing it affects is the crops,” she said. “That was the springboard for the idea.”
Armed with internet research, her own determination, and some serious problem-solving skills, Kiara discovered that orange peel is loaded with polysaccharides, the same key compound used in synthetic water-absorbing materials, and contains pectin, a natural gelling agent. She combined that with the oils from avocado skins, left the mix out in the sun… and something remarkable happened. What she ended up with was an all-natural, biodegradable, and seriously powerful way to store water in dry soil. And because it’s made from food waste, it’s not only brilliant for the environment, but also incredibly cheap to produce — making it a potential game-changer for drought-affected communities.
“Kiara found an ideal material that won’t hurt the budget in simple orange peel, and through her research, she created a way to turn it into soil-ready water storage with help from the avocado,” said Andrea Cohan, programme leader of the Google Science Fair.
Her invention doesn’t just solve a problem, it inspires a movement. She hopes to one day see her product used in rural areas across South Africa to grow crops like maize and wheat, especially in places where drought threatens food security.
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And this is just the beginning. Kiara says she’s keen to keep experimenting, dreaming up new ideas that can make the world a better place.
She’s proof that when it comes to solving some of our biggest problems, you don’t need a lab or a fancy title — just curiosity, compassion, and a whole lot of courage.
South Africa, let’s celebrate this incredible young woman. The future is bright… and it smells faintly of citrus.
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Wow this girl is brilliant. I hope she gets decent scope for her innovation. All the best to her.
You are blessed with a great mind, Kiara. Continue to stretch and nurture it to discover more answers to the challenges of this world. A wide awake company will snap you up soon if they have not already ! Good on you girl.