Eight stu­dents have won prizes in the Wa­ter Con­ser­va­tion Mas­cot De­sign Com­pe­ti­tion for pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary school stu­dents from the ages sev­en to 17, host­ed by the Reg­u­lat­ed In­dus­tries Com­mis­sion (RIC).

The com­pe­ti­tion—which tar­get­ed pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary school stu­dents—was launched on April 1, 2022.  It ran for eight weeks and fea­tured prizes such as lap­tops and tablets up for win­ning.  The RIC host­ed its prize-giv­ing cer­e­mo­ny last Fri­day, Ju­ly 22, at its of­fices lo­cat­ed at 88 Queen Janelle Com­mis­siong Street, Port of Spain.

The over­all and spe­cial prize win­ners were de­cid­ed by an in­ter­nal RIC Com­mit­tee.  Two com­pe­ti­tion par­tic­i­pants emerged as over­all co-win­ners and won HP lap­tops, while five earned spe­cial prizes of Ama­zon Fire tablets.  One per­son was cho­sen as the best in the on­line as­pect of the com­pe­ti­tion—hav­ing gar­nered the most votes on Face­book for her pre­sen­ta­tion—and won a Sam­sung Galaxy tablet.

“The RIC is com­mit­ted to the pro­mo­tion of prop­er wa­ter use prac­tices to en­sure sus­tain­able wa­ter ac­cess and de­liv­ery in Trinidad and To­ba­go and as such the Com­mis­sion em­barked on a pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion wa­ter con­ser­va­tion cam­paign which com­menced with the de­sign of a wa­ter con­ser­va­tion mas­cot that would be a cen­tral fig­ure to pro­mote this ini­tia­tive,” the Com­mis­sion ex­plained in a re­lease an­nounc­ing the mas­cot com­pe­ti­tion win­ners.

RIC Chairman, Dawn Callender (centre), and RIC Executive Director, Glenn Khan (right), join five of the eight prize winners in the RIC’s Water Conservation Mascot Design Competition, during the prize-giving ceremony, on Friday 22 July 2022. (Image courtesy RIC)

The RIC notes that in­ter­est­ed par­tic­i­pants were re­quired to sub­mit their mas­cot de­signs which could have been a drawn im­age, or a mas­cot dig­i­tal­ly cre­at­ed us­ing com­put­er graph­ics.  All de­sign en­tries were re­quired to be ac­com­pa­nied by a 150-250-word de­scrip­tion of the de­sign, which in­clud­ed an ex­pla­na­tion of what in­spired the de­sign.

In terms of the ra­tio­nale for a cre­at­ing a mas­cot, the RIC ob­serves that mas­cots are a proven means of “en­gag­ing and cap­ti­vat­ing young au­di­ences and in­spir­ing them to par­tic­i­pate in ac­tiv­i­ties such as this one, which is geared to­ward the preser­va­tion of this [wa­ter] lim­it­ed nat­ur­al re­source.” 

*RIC Mas­cot De­sign Com­pe­ti­tion Win­ners*

1. Cheryse Hen­ry – Over­all Co-Win­ner / HP Lap­top

2. Jabari Hutchin­son – Over­all Co-Win­ner / HP Lap­top

3. Raeesa Mustapha – On­line Win­ner / Sam­sung Galaxy Tab

4. An­ge­lo Ma­habir – Spe­cial Prize / Ama­zon Fire Tab

5. Eli­jah Au­gus­tine – Spe­cial Prize /Ama­zon Fire Tab

6. Elis­a­beth Fran­cis – Spe­cial Prize / Ama­zon Fire Tab

7. Aaron Ram­roop – Spe­cial Prize / Ama­zon Fire Tab

8. Vinaya Ram­sa­hai – Spe­cial Prize / Ama­zon Fire Tab

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About the RIC

The Reg­u­lat­ed In­dus­tries Com­mis­sion (RIC) is the statu­to­ry body that reg­u­lates the Wa­ter, Waste­water and Elec­tric­i­ty Sec­tors in Trinidad and To­ba­go.  As part of its man­date, the RIC seeks to en­sure that con­sumer ex­pec­ta­tions of con­sis­ten­cy and re­li­a­bil­i­ty from the wa­ter and elec­tric­i­ty util­i­ty ser­vice providers are met and/or ex­ceed­ed.