At Volvo Ocean Race Ocean Summit in Newport, RI, Bluewater joins with 11th Hour Racing to open doors to drinking water innovation

Newport, Rhode Island, May 19, 2018 – Responding to UN warnings of growing water scarcity, Bluewater and 11th Hour Racing used the Volvo Ocean Race Ocean Summit to invite innovators around the world to put forward their solutions for tackling the urban drinking crisis in megacities around the world.

“The urban drinking water challenge is directed at unleashing the power of water entrepreneurship and innovation to find solutions to the urban drinking water scarcity nightmare scenario flagged by the United Nations and already confronting cities like South Africa’s Cape Town,” Anders Jacobson, President of Bluewater, told the audience attending the Volvo Ocean Race Ocean Summit in Newport, RI, in mid-May.

He added: “Bluewater are driving the Challenge together with our partners at 11th Hour Racing because we believe human ingenuity can evolve, refine and develop technologies that create sustainable solutions to urban water scarcity issues and the Volvo Ocean Race Summit in Newport is an ideal launchpad to broaden awareness of our initiative."

“11th Hour Racing’s strategic partnerships drive innovation that tackles the challenges impacting our oceans and planet,” said Jeremy Pochman, Co-founder and Strategic Director of 11th Hour Racing. “Imagine H2O’s Urban Drinking Water Challenge is an exciting opportunity to address the global and critical issue of potable water scarcity, while supporting communities and cities to build water resiliency.”

Bluewater, a global leader in innovating and bringing water purification technologies to market, and 11th Hour Racing, a non-profit organisation collaborative, systemic change benefitting the health of our ocean, teamed with San Francisco based non-profit Imagine H2O to create the Urban Drinking Water Challenge ’18 – a new initiative will advance and deploy resilient drinking water solutions in fast-growing cities globally.

The Challenge Founding Partners, 11th Hour Racing and Bluewater Group, collectively committed up to $1,000,000 in cash awards and investment to three overall winners. Applications will close on July 2, 2018 and the three wining start-ups will be honoured at a special event held during Stockholm Water Week at the end of August.

Note to Editors

Water scarcity is a global problem with the UN saying over 2.8 billion people today live in areas where available water does not meet their needs. Cities facing water scarcity range from Los Angeles to Cape Town and London.

Imagine H2O is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering people to deploy and develop innovation to solve water challenges globally. The organization’s water innovation accelerator provides entrepreneurs with the resources, insight and visibility to launch and scale water solutions. By partnering with industry and policy experts and a global network of customers and investors, Imagine H2O has become a proven path to market for emerging water technology businesses. Since 2009, organization’s program alumni have collectively raised more than 1 in every 10 dollars of venture capital in the water industry. www.ImagineH2O.org

11th Hour Racing establishes strategic partnerships within the sailing and maritime communities to promote collaborative, systemic change benefitting the health of our ocean. Since 2010, 11th Hour Racing has been harnessing the power of sport with an innovative and comprehensive approach through three primary areas of engagement: grantees, partners, and ambassadors. Please visit us at www.11thhourracing.org

Bluewater is a world leader innovating, manufacturing, and commercializing water purification technologies and solutions that harness the company’s patented reverse osmosis technology to remove virtually all pollutants from water, including lead, bacteria, pesticides, medical residues, chlorine, micro plastic fibres and lime-scale. Please visit us at http://www.bluewatergroup.com

For more information, please contact David Noble, head of PR and Communication, at david.noble@bluewatergroup.com or +44 7785 302 694

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