UNS — An amazing achievement was again made by a student of Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta. This time, the achievement was made by Fredy Gunawan from the Soil Science Study Program, Faculty of Agriculture (FP) UNS. Recently, he earned 1st place in the Photography Contest ‘Groundwater: Make the Invisible, Visible.’ This competition was organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Jakarta.

In this competition, Fredy submitted a photo entitled “Invisible Doesn’t Mean Useless.” The location of the photograph taken was at Jeruksawit Village, Gondangrejo District, Karanganyar Regency. When interviewed by uns.ac.id, Fredy recounted that his photo contained a message that groundwater can be useful to anyone and anywhere. Both for household needs, rice fields, as well as villages and cities irrigation. “Groundwater is now increasingly difficult to access. Groundwater also holds a substantial role in the agricultural sector for food crops irrigation. This photo depicted an example of how to transform the invisible groundwater into a visible water source. The benefits of groundwater are not limited to its stream, but extended to the outcomes achieved because of the stream,” he explained on Tuesday (21/6/2022).

Fredy took this photo when helping his uncle build a well to irrigate the rice field in Jeruksawit Village. He admitted that he felt grateful when his photo was determined to be the winner in the competition organized by UNESCO Jakarta. Even more, many of the photos from the other participants are equally excellent. “I am grateful to win this competition. I didn’t expect to win this competition because, at first, it was just for fun since there were flyers from lecturers in the students’ chat group. It turned out that there was a suitable theme contended. Hence, I participated (the competition), and thank God I was able to win the championship,” he said.

Through this achievement, Fredy hopes to find other competition opportunities. “Whatever the opportunity is, we have to try, it does not matter what the outcome will be,” he said. Humas UNS

Reporter: Bayu Aji Prasetya
Editor: Dwi Hastuti