His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, has launched the Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative, it has been announced.
The initiative is aimed at tackling the water scarcity crisis and will be chaired by His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs; and vice-chaired by His Excellency Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Executive Affairs Authority.
As the water crisis intensifies, the Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative seeks to raise awareness around the issue and drive forward technological innovation targeted at solving it.
International cooperation and partnership are also key priorities here, and on Thursday, the XPrize Water Scarcity competition was launched, a collaboration between the UAE initiative and the US-headquartered XPrize Foundation.
With an investment of $150 million, the five-year global competition invites innovators to focus efforts on making water desalination technologies more sustainable and affordable, with a prize purse of $119 million.
This development follows the publishing of the UAE’s discussion paper on water scarcity last year, which launched a call for decisive and coordinated international action.