Water scarcity is one of the defining human rights challenges of our time. It is also one of the greatest opportunities to unlock bold solutions. That’s why XPRIZE launched XPRIZE Water Scarcity, a multi-year, $119 million global competition to catalyze breakthroughs in reliable, sustainable, and affordable seawater desalination. This prize exists because inequity in access to water is not just a technical issue—it’s a human one.
THE HUMAN BURDEN
Today, two billion people worldwide cannot access safe drinking water, and more than 3.5 billion people lack access to safely managed sanitation. Nowhere are the inequities sharper than in Sub-Saharan Africa, where a staggering 45% of the population lives without reliable access to clean water. For millions, this means leaving home each day to collect water, sometimes from distant or unsafe sources.
The burden of water access is not shared equally—in many low-income rural areas, collecting water falls to the women and girls of the community. The time cost is enormous: around 200 million hours per day is spent fetching water, sharply cutting into time that young girls could be spending on education. Lack of adequate sanitation compounds this burden, increasing health risks and fueling higher school dropout rates.
Even schools themselves are not immune. According to UNICEF, 447 million students worldwide lack access to basic drinking water in schools.
SYSTEMIC RISKS
Water scarcity extends beyond classrooms, households, and communities. It is also a driver of global economic instability. The World Bank warns that, without improved water management, some regions could experience GDP losses of up to 6% by 2050. Economic strain linked to water scarcity can lead to regional instability, driving fragility, conflict, migration, and displacement as people leave their homes to seek water and opportunity elsewhere.
In some regions, water scarcity can not only create instability but also violence. In Yemen, researchers found that 70–80% of rural disputes were water-related, leading to an estimated 4,000 deaths annually. Water is both a source of life and, increasingly, a source of conflict.
This is not a distant problem. As of 2022, roughly half the world’s population experiences some period of severe water scarcity each year. Meanwhile, about one in four people live in areas of extremely high water stress—using more than 80% of their annual renewable freshwater supply. By 2030, global water demand is projected to outstrip supply by 40%. By mid-century, up to 5 billion people could be living in water-scarce regions.
A CALL FOR INNOVATION
The UN’s 2024 World Water Development Report makes it clear: we cannot view water as just a resource. Managed sustainably and equitably, it becomes a powerful driver of peace, prosperity, climate resilience, and regional integration.
Technology alone cannot solve the water crisis—but deployed equitably, it can transform lives.
That is the vision behind XPRIZE Water Scarcity: to unlock Earth’s oceans through reliable, affordable, and sustainable desalination solutions that expand access for the greatest number of people. Crucially, solutions must achieve costs low enough to be viable in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of water scarcity is most severe. By reimagining existing methods, materials, and system-level designs, this competition aims to create scalable solutions that safeguard ecosystems while delivering clean water to those who need it most.
When we achieve equitable access to water, we do more than meet a need—we advance human rights, build peace, and create a future where abundance is accessible to all.
Learn more about the teams that recently qualified to advance to the next stage of the competition. These visionary teams are working to transform seawater desalination—innovators from around the world who are rising to this global challenge with bold ideas and breakthrough technologies.
Explore their solutions and follow their journey at xprize.org/water.