DUBAI, 10th August, 2026 (WAM) — The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award, supervised by the UAE Water Aid Foundation (Suqia UAE), under the umbrella of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, plays a pivotal role in bringing a life to communities suffering from severe water scarcity.
This impact is achieved by empowering winning projects to deliver far-reaching positive change – providing clean, safe water to millions of beneficiaries, improving public health, reducing waterborne diseases and easing the time and effort required to access water. As a result, communities are gaining greater opportunities for education, employment and an improved quality of life.
“Launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the award supports the UAE’s endeavours to drive research, development and the innovation of sustainable solutions to provide clean and safe water for unprivileged communities around the world,” said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Suqia UAE.
”By encouraging sustainable solutions utilising clean and renewable energy, the award promotes the deployment of the latest advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), to accelerate the design, implementation and development of projects, thereby benefiting as many people as possible. It also provides data and information that help stakeholders improve the lives of underprivileged communities,” Al Tayer added.
With a total prize value of USD 1 million, the award comprises four main categories: the Innovative Projects Award, the Innovative Research and Development Award, the Innovative Individual Award and the Innovative Crisis Solutions Award.
Over the last four cycles, the award has recognised 43 winners from 26 countries around the world. The winners said the recognition has broadened the reach of their innovations, enabling them to benefit more water-scarce communities worldwide and strengthen their contribution to tackling the global water crisis.
Commenting on the award’s role in enabling their innovations to achieve a tangible impact on the ground, Raoul Antoine, General Manager of Belgium-based Sotrad Water, third-place winner of the Innovative Projects Award – Large Projects category in the fourth cycle of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award, said: “The award has granted us a global platform to achieve our objectives of advancing agriculture, health and education across communities. It gave us a bit more flexibility to work more on the transfer of technology and training of technicians, so the transfer of technology becomes like a central point of our project, and allowed us to gather information to guide governments to improve lives in rural communities.”
The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award has provided significant momentum for the widespread deployment and implementation of the ‘Pump&Drink’ project submitted by Sotrad Water.
The project offers an integrated solution for pumping, treating and distributing drinking water using solar energy within an autonomous system operating in rural communities. The projects’ unique remote monitoring solutions provide stakeholders with daily data on production, in addition to key information regarding the performance and maintenance of each site. To date, more than 1,250 Pump&Drink stations have been executed in six countries, serving rural communities that previously suffered from limited or unreliable access to safe drinking water.
In its fifth cycle, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award continues to strengthen its position as a pioneering global platform for advancing innovation in the water sector, enabling the development of innovative desalination and water purification solutions, and accelerating their adoption on a wider scale. Suqia UAE is accepting applications for the fifth cycle until 30 September 2026 through www.mbrwateraward.ae.
Source: Emirates News Agency