“Great is poetry, kindness and dancing. But the best thing in the world is children.”  -Fernando Pessoa, one of the greatest Portuguese poets, in 1935.

Inspired by this, the Lisbon Living Lab team of the B-WaterSmart project asked young children for ideas to improve water smartness in the future, making the city more resilient to climate change.

127 students from 7 classes (2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th grades) of three elementary schools looked at four topics: “Reuse more water”, “Take less water from nature”, “Take advantage of the nutrients in the reclaimed water” and “Don’t forget the energy when using water at home”. These topics are aligned with the expected impacts in Lisbon, so the sessions worked like a game with the children making them believe they were the Living Lab team.

80 brilliant ideas were written down on 7 posters (one for each class) and displayed at the B-WaterSmart Lisbon Living Lab Event on World Water Day 2024. The children were heard and the Municipal Director for the Environment, Catarina Freitas, selected 8 ideas to present to the Mayor of Lisbon.

“Obrigado pelas vossas ideias para tornar Lisboa mais inteligente no uso da água!!! – thank you for your ideas to make Lisbon more water-smart!!!”