Safal Group, the steel roofing manufacturer, has announced the winners of the 2019 ‘Safal Eye in the Wild’ photography competition that seeks to promote sustainable conservation actions in Africa.
Twenty-eight-year-old Daniel Charles Msirikale, a freelance photographer from Tanzania, emerged the overall winner for his piece that showed two young boys heading home from fetching water with a third boy pumping water from a borehole.
He beat other entries from professional and amateur photographers and received Ksh300,000 cash prize.
Kenyan top winners
Safal Group Chief Executive Officer Anders Lindgren said while the competition highlighted the impact of water conservation, it also celebrated humanity’s ability to overcome challenges and live sustainably.
“We have invested over Ksh30 million in this initiative to raise awareness on alternative ways Africa can conserve and preserve the environment, in particular our water resources,” Mr Lindgren said. “Photography is a powerful medium of influence in the promotion of sustainable conservation actions in Africa.”
The 2019 competition, themed Every Drop Counts received a great number of submissions from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Kamal Shah from Kenya, who emerged the Silver Winner received Ksh200,000 prize money, Anthony Ochieng, also a Kenyan, took the Bronze Award with prize money of Ksh100,000.
Denish Ochieng, a photojournalist with a Kenyan Media company, won The People’s Choice Award with his photo that depicted a boy cooling down his head with high-pressure water from a tap reaching over a million people online within a few days.
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Entries to this year’s contest were judged by award-winning wildlife photographer Gurcharan Roopra; Uganda’s Reinout Dujardin and Tanzania’s Hendri Lombard, who selected winners of the gold, silver and bronze. They also selected the potential public award-winning images based on the submissions’ theme, message, and creativity.
“We were very impressed by the quality of submission and how they interpreted the theme by unleashing the power of visual expression to tell compelling stories of water conservation,” said Mr Roopra.
Donation for water
Meanwhile, the company announced a donation of Ksh 3,000,000 to Red Cross Kenya to rehabilitate water facilities within flood-stricken areas.
“One of our core values is caring for our communities and we are deeply concerned by what we are witnessing with current the rains. It is our hope that this donation will ease the access to clean water for the affected families,” said Mr Lindgren.
Regionally, as part of Safal’s initiative towards water conservation, the company has introduced RainGain, a water harvesting system.
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