Recognition of our technology by IBM.
WATER
Grand Challenge
Globally, over 780 million people are estimated to lack access to clean water. More than 1 billion people currently live in water-scarce regions, and as many as 3.5 billion could experience water scarcity by 2025. Contamination of water resources has also contributed to a significant decline in the availability of clean water. Over 3.4 million people from across the world are estimated to die each year from water-related diseases. In order to augment currently available water resources, we need to tap into alternate resources like atmospheric extraction of water, which can potentially provide water where it is unavailable or inaccessible, by extracting it directly from the air around us. While technologies exist today for atmospheric water extraction, adoption has been poor globally due to large capital and operating costs and operational limitations. Technological innovation in this space will lead to the development of an atmospheric extraction technology that is a significant improvement over existing technologies in terms of cost, efficiency, use of renewable energy and compactness. The exponential increase in affordability and efficiency can greatly boost adoption, and create impact where it is most needed.Draft Guidelines
The Water XPRIZE will require teams to develop a community-scale atmospheric water technology that produces at least TBD liters of clean water in 24 hours at the lowest total energy use. The Water XPRIZE aims to fundamentally transform our relationship with water by expanding our understanding of where it comes from and how to tap into it. XPRIZE hopes this prize will demonstrate to the world that access to clean drinking water is a basic human right that can finally be realized.To find out how you can help support this XPRIZE, please email alliances@xprize.org.
