Water & Wastewater Asia May/Jun 2021

5 MINS WITH
GLOBAL WATER AWARDS:
Recognising and rewarding
initiatives in water
Established in 2006, the Global Water Awards recognise the successes of
companies, technologies, projects, deals and plants in the international water
industry. His Excellency Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, chairman of the Board of
Trustees of the UAE Water Aid shares the importance of acknowledging the
achievements as well as his views on the solutions to tackle water scarcity.
What is the vision behind Mohammed bin
Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award?
And what is the impact you hope the
Global Water Award will achieve?
The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Global Water Award was launched by His
Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al
Maktoum, vice president and prime minister
of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, to help
address the pressing global water scarcity
problem. Under the Mohammed Bin Rashid
Al Maktoum Global Initiatives Foundation,
the UAE Water Aid Foundation (Suqia UAE)
supervises the award that grants US$1m
in prizes to support research institutions,
individuals, and innovators from around
the world to develop and present the most
cost-effective, innovative renewableenergy-driven
solutions to water shortage.
Specifically, it aims to meet the needs of
urban and rural communities which lack
access to clean drinking water.
As clean water sources dwindle, we need
to look beyond the traditional solutions
and encourage sustainable and resilient
models to produce clean water. We believe
that the award will become a platform to
drive innovation in the water sector over the
course of the coming cycles and an enabler
for promising technologies to move past
the laboratory scale and onto the ground to
better the lives of millions affected by the
global water crisis.
What are some of the programmes and
new initiatives and/or changes to be
seen in the third cycle?
The first two cycles of the Award were
highly successful and recognised
20 winners who presented unique
His Excellency Saeed Al Tayer, chairman
of Suqia’s Board of Trustees
models that produced clean water using solar
energy.
For the third cycle, we have expanded
the scope of the award to include new
technologies that produce, distribute, store,
monitor, desalinate and purify water using
renewable energy. We have also introduced
a new category, the ‘Innovative Crisis
Solutions Award.’ Under this category,
we honour innovations that can provide
relief within the most critical 48 hours after
internationally declared emergencies, given
that rapid access to safe drinking water is
crucial for survival during crises and natural
disasters.
In the second cycle, Singapore company
Liquinex Group Ptd won first place in the
Innovative Research and Development
award, what was winning feature of the
company?
The suitcase-like compact water purification
system designed by Liquinex has the ability
to provide high-quality WHO (World Health
Organization) standard drinking water at
a rate of 500L/hr, meaning it can benefit
around 1,700 people at the rate of 3L/day/
person/per suitcase. The suitcases run on a
very low power 12V requirement, which can
easily be supplemented by solar packs or
car batteries, making it ideal for emergency
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