Peeing in the shower is not usually the kind of thing you would win a prize for, and definitely not the trip of a lifetime.

But this is what has happened to English literature student Deborah Torr, who is in the Amazon with her boyfriend Chris Dobson.

While there they will be living and working with an Amazonian tribe to build a water pump and install solar technology.

By interacting with the Huni Kai people along the banks of the Rio Jordão they will learn how climate change directly affects them.

The couple are on the trip after winning Npower’s Future Leaders competition with their controversial water-saving idea.

Miss Torr, of Mitchley Avenue, Riddlesdown, said they came up with the idea of calling for people to wee while taking their daily shower after realising each time a toilet is flushed it uses 12 litres of water.

She said if everyone takes part in the campaign, called #gowiththeflow, this could be a saving of 720 million litres of water.

Speaking before leaving the UK, the former Wallington School for Girls pupil said: “We’re all so excited to have this opportunity.

“We look forward to this amazing experience and bringing back our learnings from the indigenous people in the hope to change the way we think and live.

“Living more sustainably and saving water is important whether you’re living in the modern or the most isolated of areas.

“We have been working incredibly hard over the last year to increase awareness of our winning project within our community, and managed to attract global attention through our radical idea - and now the time has finally come to make a difference to the people in this remote part of the world.”

The University of East Anglia students will be joined by winners from Durham and Bristol universities.