Sheikh Mohammed Receives Winners Of The 3rd Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award

The winners of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Awards were received and honoured by Sheikh Mohammed himself. There were 11 winners in total from India, China, France, the Philippines, the United States of America, Kenya, Malaysia, and Honduras.

The award scheme, launched by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, aims to encourage individuals, innovators, and research centres around the globe to bring on innovative and sustainable solutions that can help mitigate the issue of water scarcity faced in many countries around the globe.

Ruler of Dubai meets winners of the third Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award

The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Awards is organized by Suqia UAE (UAE Water Aid Foundation), an entity that was established under the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives Foundation.

Suqia UAE is a non-profit entity that focuses on providing humanitarian assistance in many places around the globe and takes great effort to assist communities that suffer from the issue of water scarcity by providing clean and potable water. To date, the team at Suqia has been able to provide their services in over 36 countries positively impacting more than 13 million people.

Following the success of the first 2 iterations of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Awards, the 3rd iteration of the award also gained widespread popularity. The Innovative Crisis Solutions Award is a new category that was launched for the currently ended 3rd cycle, wherein the objective was to provide relief within the first 48 hours after emergency situations that are internationally declared.

The initial 48 hours is a crucial period in case of such emergency scenarios where access to safe drinkable water becomes a very basic necessity that needs to be covered.

The prize money for the 3rd Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Awards has a combined worth of over $1 million, and the prizes are distributed to winners across four categories: Innovative Projects Award, Innovative Individual Award, Innovative Crisis Solutions Award, and Innovative R&D Award.

The applications for the 3rd cycle of the awards were accepted from 16th November 2020 until 30th May 2021.

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Attendees of the honouring ceremony included Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Suqia UAE, as well as other board members of Suqia UAE, including Fahad Abdelrahman bin Sultan, Deputy Secretary-General for Development and International Cooperation at Emirates Red Crescent and Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Suqia; Mohammed Abdulkareem Al Shamsi, Acting Executive Director of Suqia; DR. Ahmed Ali Murad, Associate Provost for Research at UAE University; Waleed bin Salman, Executive Vice President, Business Development & Excellence at DEWA; Nasser Lootah, Executive Vice President, Generation (Power & Water) at DEWA; and DR. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice President of Khalifa University.

Below is the list of winners based on the category of awards.

Innovative Projects Award (for Small Projects)

1. The First Prize was awarded to the University of Illinois, United States, & Safe Water partnering with the Aids Project of Kenya for their demonstration of a drinkable water ozonation project that is solar-powered. 
2. The Second Prize was awarded to Easy Water for Everyone from the United States which brought forward an innovative solution to repurpose hemodialyzers to be able to produce purified water that can then be used for cooking, drinking, and washing in remote villages.
3. The Third Prize was awarded for the Membrane Filters from India, which is a solar-powered standalone water filtration plant that can remove inorganic components from groundwater, turning it into safe consumable drinking water.

Innovative Projects Award (for Large Projects)

1. Joint First Prize: Agua Para el Pueblo from Honduras for a non-electric technology that removes turbidity from surface water sources that are contaminated.
2. Joint First Prize: South Asian Forum for Environment (SAFE) from India for their solar-operated water ATM machine that filters water using reverse osmosis.

Innovative Crisis Solutions Award

The inaugural Innovative Crisis Solutions Award went to Mascara NT from France for their project on a pre-connected solar-powered containerised desalination system, with its main highlight being that it can be deployed and implemented in less than 2 hours.

Innovative Research & Development R&D Award – International Organisations

1. The first prize went to the University of Malaysia for a smart chemical-free auto-backwash membrane system.
2. The second prize was awarded to the Sustainable Livelihood Initiative of India for their sustainable water purifier project that can provide clean water without the need for any filters, external energy, or membranes.
3. The third prize went to the Maithri Aquatech collaboration with the Jain University of India for showcasing a hybrid water solution that combines the ideas of food preservation and sustainable water generation.

Innovative Individual Award – Innovative Researcher

Professor Peng Wang from China was awarded the Innovative Individual Award – Innovative Researched prize. Professor Wang’s award is for showcasing technologies that can produce clean and inexpensive drinkable water that can help small and medium-sized communities mitigate the issue of water scarcity.