The UN forecasts that by 2050, 66% of the global population will be urbanised placing pressure on water-scarce cities. Innovations can be the difference.
Bluewater launched its $1-million (USD) Global Innovation Challenge – inviting local entrepreneurs to provide scalable solutions to water scarcity challenges. The award will be split between three overall winners.
Anders Jacobson, President of Bluewater and co-founder and CEO of Blue, the Bluewater holding company says, “the Challenge has been designed to create direct and scalable solutions for water-scarce cities and at-risk communities, inspire community awareness and public action, promote the role of innovation and entrepreneurship – and facilitate the deployment of real solutions to a real problem.”
The UN predicts some 5.7 billion people will be living in urban areas and running short of drinking water by 2050.
“Entrepreneurs across Africa are invited to present solutions to tackle drinking water issues in mega-cities, including Africa’s, which are some of the fastest urbanising centres in the world,” said Anders Jacobson, President of Bluewater.
The UN predicts that by 2100, 80-90% of people will live in cities and according to some researchers, within the next 35 years more than 100 cities will have populations larger than 5.5 million people, with Asia and Africa expected to become the world’s population centres. In terms of drinking water, the World Bank expects a 50% increase in urban water demands within the next 30 years.
The Urban Drinking Water Challenge aligns with U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 6, or SDG6, which calls for universal access to safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030. The three winning start-ups will be honoured at a special event held in Stockholm, Sweden, on August 27, during World Water Week, August 26-31, 2018.
To apply and for more information on the Urban Drinking Water Challenge, ‘waterpreneurs’ are encouraged to visit http://applynow.imagineh2o.org/.
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