Happy Eco News Teen Duo from Slovakia and Czechia win The Earth Prize 2025 with Groundbreaking Clean Water Solution
Reading Time: 3 minutes
On Earth Day, a team of young innovators from Slovakia and Czechia were named the global winners of The Earth Prize 2025 – the world’s largest environmental competition for 13 to 19-year-olds.
18-year-old Tomáš Čermák and 19-year-old Anna Podmanická developed PURA, an innovative water purification system tackling one of the planet’s most urgent but often overlooked challenges: antibiotic pollution.
With antibiotic resistance projected to cause 10 million deaths a year by 2050, solutions like PURA are timely and critical. The duo’s system uses a unique combination of light and cold plasma to remove harmful pollutants and antibiotic-resistant bacteria from water – a fresh, science-based approach to a fast-growing global issue.
Their project was chosen by nearly 16,000 public votes from among seven inspiring regional winners from across the globe. Representing Europe, PURA is also the first-ever Global Winner from either Slovakia or Czechia.
“This is just the beginning of our journey,” said Tomáš. “Being named global winners of The Earth Prize elevates our research to a global platform in the fight against water pollution. More importantly, it fuels our mission to raise awareness about the threat of contamination with drugs and antibiotics in our water. Together with The Earth Foundation, we aim to inspire more young innovators to take action and solve the problems of our world.”
PURA was recognised as the Global Winner for 2025 during The Earth Prize 2025 Award Ceremony. Having received $12,500 to scale up their prototype, now Tomáš and Anna will host a sustainably crafted “100-year flag” to be flown at their schools – a symbol of youth-led climate innovation.
Reflecting on their achievement, Anna added:“This is not the end of our journey, but the start of it – the opportunity to take our work and our passions to another level, and continue to do good which gives us joy and purpose.”
A new approach to a growing problem
Tomáš (the first high school researcher at the Czech Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Plasma Physics and an advocate for autism inclusion), teamed up with Anna (a prize-winning Slovak scientist selected for the University of Oxford’s summer programme). Drawing on their individual research areas, they created a novel two-step purification system by merging photocatalysis and plasma (AC corona discharge), a method not seen before until now.
Early tests show that PURA can purify small quantities of water, making it ideal for household use. With support from The Earth Prize, Tomáš and Anna are now developing a next-generation prototype capable of treating larger volumes, with a long-term vision of integrating their system into wastewater treatment plants, to protect the environment as well as society as a whole.
The Earth Prize: empowering young changemakers
Launched in 2021 by Swiss non-profit The Earth Foundation, The Earth Prize supports young environmental innovators with mentoring, learning resources and $100,000 in funding to scale their solutions. To date, it has reached over 15,000 students across 160 countries and territories.
Past winners continue to build on their success long after the competition ends. Team Delavo, who won in 2023, developed a laundry water filter that recycles up to 90% of wastewater and are now working with a national manufacturer to bring their technology to market.
Peter McGarry, founder of The Earth Foundation, commented: “PURA’s selection as the Global Winner of The Earth Prize 2025 is a powerful reminder of what young minds can achieve. With PURA, Tomáš and Anna have combined scientific excellence with a deep sense of responsibility, offering a solution that could transform the health of both people and planet. Their work is exactly the kind of innovation The Earth Prize was created to elevate, and we are proud to support their journey.”
Read other articles by Charlotte Tucker:
- Meet These Teenage Inventors From The Earth Prize
- 17-Year-Old Ryan Honary Turns School Project into Global Wildfire Solution
- The Earth Prize 2025: Vote for the Global Winner by 22 April!
The post Teen Duo from Slovakia and Czechia win The Earth Prize 2025 with Groundbreaking Clean Water Solution appeared first on Happy Eco News.