The Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize 2024 is now accepting nominations. This esteemed award recognizes outstanding contributions made by people or organizations in addressing the world’s water challenges by creating or implementing cutting-edge policies, programs, or technologies that benefit humanity.
At a side event sponsored by Singapore at the UN 2023 Water Conference in New York, Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu announced the opening of nominations for the LKYWP 2024. International water industry executives who highlighted best practices for utilizing technology for sustainable water management attended the Singapore event on “Water, Technology, and Sustainable Development” in large numbers. The leaders also discussed how the global community can cooperate to spur innovation for a water-resilient future.
The LKYWP is named after Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew, whose
foresight and leadership have enabled Singapore to attain a sustainable water supply despite
being a highly urbanised city-state with little natural water resources. Since its inception in
2008, the Prize, which is sponsored by Temasek Foundation, has gained a strong standing in the
global water community for its recognition of innovative water technologies, policies or
programmes that have been game-changers in their real-world application.
Award:
The LKYWP 2024 Laureate will be announced next year, on World Water Day, on 22 March
2024. The Laureate will receive S$300,000, a gold medallion and a certificate, at an award
ceremony during the 10th Singapore International Water Week, to be held from 18 to 22
June 2024 in Singapore.
Eligibility:
- A valid nominee for the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize should have made outstanding
achievements in any water-related field. - The work should have demonstrated the innovativeness of technologies, policies or
programmes. - The work should have proven impact or demonstrated great potential to be a gamechanger in the future.
- Self-nominations and nominations by family members of nominees will not be accepted.
Selection Criteria:
- Role of nominee: The nominator should describe the role of the nominee in the
development and implementation of the specific technologies, policies or programmes
that underpin the nomination. In particular, the leadership of the nominee as well as the
nominee’s instrumental contributions should be highlighted. - Innovativeness and merits of the technologies, policies or programmes: The
innovativeness and benefits of the referenced technologies, policies and programmes
should be described in detail. Nominators are encouraged to include comparisons with the
state-of-the-art technologies or existing policies and programmes and depict how the
nominee’s work has been proven to be a game changer or shown great potential to do so. - Impact on humanity: The current level of readiness and scale of implementation of the
referenced technologies, policies and programmes should be described. Nominators
should quantify the impact of nominee’s work in benefitting humanity or project any longterm benefits in cases where the level of readiness and scale of the implementation is
currently low.
Nomination:
Leaders of international water companies and water utilities, top academics in water research,
policy and/or management, heads of international organisations, members of government, or
distinguished individuals in the field of water are welcome to submit nominations of suitable
candidates for the LKYWP 2024.
