16-year-old South African invents wonder material to fight drought

Photos: Creative solution
Precocious talent – South African Kiara Nirghin, 16, won Google's Community Impact Award for creating a super absorbent polymer that could be used to combat the nation's crippling drought crisis.
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Photos: Creative solution
Sustainable solution – The polymer uses orange peel and avocado skins, which combine to form a material that can store hundreds of times its weight in water, creating reservoirs that would allow farmers to maintain their crops through droughts.
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Photos: Creative solution
Urgent crisis – South Africa is experiencing the worst droughts on record, with thousands of communities and millions of people experiencing water shortages.
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