Cape Town - The fear that climate change will worsen inequality in South Africa - with only the rich able to afford enough water, food and safely-located housing - is a rising concern for Cape Town-based teenage activist Zoe Prinsloo.

She saw this phenomenon, described by some as "climate apartheid", start to play out amid a severe drought in 2018, when wealthier Capetonians could purchase the water they needed while poorer people simply had to get by with less.

Prinsloo, 17, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that this experience had been a big driver for her environmental activism involving climate change awareness campaigns, beach cleanups and selling green products.

"During the drought, the rich were able to afford their own boreholes and big jojo (storage) tanks and... buy spring water from the shops. The poor couldn't do that," said the high-school student, one of 500 young people selected to attend the U.N. Youth Climate Summit in New York last month.

Since the age of 10, she has also organized beach clean-ups.

"I noticed the same (plastic) culprits washing up all the time: ear buds, straws and plastic bags. I decided to do something about it," Prinsloo said.

She officially launched her own business in 2018 called "Save a Fishie", which sells straws, notebooks, pens and cleaning buds made of natural and recycled materials.

She has sold thousands of products already, and puts the money back into expanding her business as well as boosting the size and reach of her beach clean-ups.

"Everyone deserves a clean environment," Prinsloo said.