Watch: UAE President witnesses Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative and XPRIZE partnership announcement

The five-year global competition aims to encourage innovators around the world to focus on transforming the reliability, affordability and sustainability of water desalination technologies.

The Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative is dedicated to raising the profile of water scarcity on the international agenda and accelerating the development, testing and deployment at scale of transformative and sustainable technological solutions to address the threats it poses to people, businesses and communities around the world. Working with its partners, the initiative seeks to harness the power of targeted investment, accelerated technological innovation and expanded international cooperation to address this growing challenge.

Commenting on the launch of the Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative and the announcement of the XPRIZE partnership, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative, said: “The solutions that exist currently to address the water scarcity crisis are not sufficient to prevent a series of unacceptable scenarios from occurring. “New solutions are therefore urgently needed, and the Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative is committed to collaborating with stakeholders around the world to discover these new ideas, demonstrate their feasibility and bring them to life as efficiently as possible.”

The association’s announcement ceremony, which took place at the historic Niqa Bin Ateej water tank, was attended by Sheikh Theyab bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Court Martyrs’ Family Affairs and Development Office Presidential; Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, Advisor for Special Affairs of the Presidential Court; Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology; Mohamed Hassan Al Suwaidi, Minister of Investments; Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Executive Affairs Authority and member of the Executive Council, and several sheikhs, ministers and senior officials.

Global water scarcity is a rapidly growing problem affecting people and communities around the world. Studies have shown that up to 4 billion people experience water scarcity for at least one month a year. The factors driving growing water scarcity are varied and include population growth and demographic change, infrastructure and governance challenges, as well as environmental pollution and climate change.

Without effective action, global water scarcity is expected to have a series of devastating consequences, including loss of life and humanitarian crises, food insecurity, mass migrations, geopolitical instability and potentially even armed conflicts over water. Governments, the private sector, researchers, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, international organizations and individuals have a crucial role to play in overcoming the far-reaching consequences of water scarcity.

The establishment of the Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative is part of a broader UAE-led effort to address global water scarcity, which included the publication of a detailed discussion paper on the topic in September 2023. , titled ‘Domino effect: water scarcity: the hidden’. “Threat to global security and prosperity.”

The discussion paper, which remains available for download from the Foreign Office, is a global call to action for a more decisive and coordinated international response to this worsening problem.

Peter H. Diamandis, CEO, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of XPRIZE, said: “XPRIZE Water Scarcity is a global call to scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to turn water scarcity into water abundance through the use of advanced technologies. convergent exponentials to address this critical problem. global need. XPRIZE Water Scarcity, our largest competition to date, is the first of its kind focused on creating new desalination solutions to unlock water from Earth’s oceans and turn it into drinking water for everyone, in an equitable and sustainable”.

The partnership with the more equitable and abundant. for all.

More information about the Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative can be found at www.mbzwi.ae. More information about the XPRIZE Water Scarcity contest, including full prize terms, is available at www.xprize.org/water.