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Awarding scientific innovation in pursuit of
water and sanitation for all
Abdulmalek A. Al Alshaikh, General Secretary, Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water
T
he Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize
for Water (PSIPW) is a leading scientific award,
offered every two years, that focuses on innovation.
Since its establishment in 2002 by HRH Prince Sultan Bin
Abdulaziz (1930–2011), PSIPW had given recognition to
scientists, researchers and inventors around the world for
pioneering work that addresses the problem of water scar-
city in creative and effective ways.
PSIPW offers a suite of five prizes, covering the entire water
research landscape. The Creativity Prize, worth US$266,000,
is awarded for cutting-edge interdisciplinary work that can be
considered a breakthrough in any water-related field. There
are also four specialized prizes, each worth US$133,000: the
Surface Water Prize, the Groundwater Prize, the Alternative
Water Resources Prize, and the Water Management and
Protection Prize.
Nominations are evaluated by an international panel of
distinguished scientists who serve on various committees
for each of the five prizes. Nominations undergo a rigorous
three-tiered evaluation process, starting with a preliminary
evaluation committee, followed by a referee committee, and
ending with a final selection committee.
Winners are awarded for work that is directly relevant to
the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6),
which is to “ensure access to water and sanitation for all”.
Their innovative research has made substantial contribu-
tions to our understanding of water resources and how to
develop, safeguard, and conserve them.
PSIPW’s seventh awards ceremony was held at the United
Nations headquarters in New York on 2 November 2016. It
was hosted by the UN Friends of Water and presided over
by the then UN General Secretary, HE Mr. Ban Ki-moon,
and PSIPW Chairman, HRH Prince Khaled Bin Sultan Bin
Abdulaziz.
PSIPW has special consultative status with the United
Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and is an
observing member of the UN Committee for the Peaceful
Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS).
Predicting cholera outbreaks
For the awards given in December 2016, the Creativity
Prize was awarded to Dr. Rita Colwell of the University of
Maryland, College Park, US and Dr. Shafiqul Islam of Tufts
University, US, for developing and successfully testing a
model that uses chlorophyll information from satellite data
to predict cholera outbreaks up to six months in advance.
Dr. Rita Colwell, an internationally acclaimed oceanog-
rapher and microbiologist, has spent the bulk of her career
studying the V. cholerae bacterium that causes cholera. She
and her colleagues have found V. cholerae in oceans around
the world, in isolated lakes and rivers untouched by faecal
contamination, and in volcanic springs in Iceland. Colwell
and her team were the first to use remote satellite data to
develop a predictive model for cholera outbreaks in East Asia,
and she is the first scientist to link global warming with a
potential rise in cases of infectious disease.
Dr. Shafiqul Islam has applied Colwell’s findings, using satel-
lite data from NASA, to accurately predict cholera outbreaks
at least three months – and often up to six months – ahead of
time. The model has been tested with chlorophyll information
from satellites over the Bay of Bengal region to predict cholera
outbreaks in Bangladesh. The team is currently working on
testing the model with ground-based observations.
A systems approach to water resources management
Effective water resources management is crucial to meeting
SDG6. The Water Management and Protection Prize for
the seventh award went to Dr. Daniel P. Loucks of Cornell
University for developing and implementing a systems
approach to water resources management. He has created
and implemented systems tools that provide an effective,
dynamic, and successful framework to address practical
water resources management problems worldwide. His work
examines the interplay between environmental stress, stake-
holder participation processes and hydrological systems.
Decision makers in numerous countries, including devel-
oping nations, have been trained and influenced by Dr.
Loucks’ approach to water resources planning.
Using sunlight to destroy pathogens in water
In 2014, the Alternative Water Resources Prize was won by
Dr. Polycarpos Falaras of the National Center for Scientific
Research “Demokritos” in Athens, Greece and coordinator of
the European Union’s CleanWater project. He has developed
a novel water detoxification technology by taking advantage
of sunlight and a unique composite membrane to destroy
toxins while filtering water.
This is an innovative and efficient process, exploiting solar
energy by incorporating nano-engineered titanium photo-