An intelligent 16-year-old South African teenager could have come up with a solution to her country’s worst drought in recorded history. Johannesburg schoolgirl Kiara Nirghin recently won the Google Science Fair’s Community Impact Award for the Middle East and Africa with her submission “No More Thirsty Crops.” Using orange peel and avocado skins, the precocious student created a super absorbent polymer (SAP) capable of storing reserves of water hundreds of times its own weight, forming reservoirs that would allow farmers to maintain their crops at minimal cost. The polymer has the added benefit of sustainability as it uses recycled and biodegradable waste products. The inventor says she wanted to tackle the most urgent aspect of the national crisis.
“I wanted to minimize the effect that drought has on the community and the main thing it affects is the crops,” says Nirghin, of St. Martin’s School. “That was the springboard for the idea.” The teenager combined the skin and peel and left the mixture in the sun, where they reacted together to form the powerfully absorbent polymer.

source: cnn