What does a $2,500 budget, five students, and a water crisis have in common? For Abigail Calvez, a Water Management student at HZ University of Applied Sciences, they were the ingredients for one of the most formative experiences of her life.
A little while ago we shared how our sponsored student Abigail Calvez travelled to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe as one of three students sponsored by Wavemakers United to participate in the Wetskills programme — an international platform where students and young professionals tackle real-world water challenges together. The brief she received was urgent and concrete: youth-led agricultural enterprises in the Umzingwane district were struggling to access water for irrigation. Most farmers relied on manual collection from rivers and wells. It is exhausting, time-consuming, and often unsafe, especially for women and children.
Working in a team of five, Abigail and her teammates designed a dual solution: hydraulic ram pumps or solar-powered pumps to draw water from local sources, feed it through pipes into elevated storage tanks, and distribute it to crops via drip irrigation. The system requires zero fuel, is environmentally sustainable, and can pump up to 12,000 litres per day. Total estimated cost: $2,635.
The jury approved and two stakeholders came on board. The solution may now become reality on the ground!
The impact went both ways. Walking past cobras at a wastewater treatment plant, seeing local communities walk over 10km for access to unclean water, and sharing meals with teammates who had never seen a piano or learned to swim: these moments reshaped how Abigail sees her future as a water manager.
“It really shows how international help is very important,” she reflects. “I got to share knowledge from the Netherlands, and they shared their knowledge about the water struggles they face.”
Wavemakers United sponsors three students per year to join the Wetskills programme. Abigail’s journey is exactly why.