Dubai, UAE, 10 January 2023: His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, received the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. (AIDFI) from the Philippines in recognition of winning the third place in the Innovative Projects Award - Large Projects Award at the 3rd cycle of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award. With a total prize of USD 1 million, the Award encourages research institutions, individuals and innovators globally to develop new technologies for producing, distributing, storing, monitoring, desalinating, and purifying water using renewable energy; to address the challenge of water scarcity. Suqia UAE supervises the award, under the umbrella of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives Foundation.
HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Suqia UAE, praised the award winner. HE said that the project supports international efforts to find sustainable and innovative solutions to fight the global water crisis. The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award is a notable contribution from the UAE to provide drinking water to people in need worldwide.
AIDFI’s innovative hydraulic invention pumps water to waterless communities living at higher elevation. The pump operates without fuel or electricity, avoiding greenhouse gas emissions. It increases daily water volume from 8 to 80 litres of water per person. It is currently installed in 590 villages and benefits around 290,000 people.
“Winning this award is very prestigious and will mean an incredible recognition and moral boost for our hard work in remote communities. It will open more doors for cooperation in serving needy communities and farms with our systems. We intend to use the prize money to manufacture more mechanical water kiosks to replace our public faucets in previous installations to ensure better water distribution, increased income and therefore more sustainable water associations,” said Auke Idzenga, Co-Founder and CEO of AIDFI.