Mohammed launches UAE Water Aid Foundation and water scarcity solution prize

on 17 July 2014.

UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced the launch of and international prize of $1 million for finding sustainable solutions to water shortage all over the world through the use of solar energy to desalinate and purify water. His Highness also announced the establishment of UAE Water Aid Foundation with the aim of conducting research and studies to support the production of clean water using solar energy so as to provide new, cheap and innovative solutions for millions around the world who suffer from scarcity of water and polluted drinking water.

Kazim supports the benefits of good corporate governance

on 06 July 2014.

Dubai: Proper corporate governance would have helped several of Dubai’s large family companies weather the financial crisis better, and listing helps support good governance while also making ownership succession infinitely easier, Eisa Kazim, Governor of DIFC, told Gulf News.

He also expects some family companies to come the markets soon, either in the Nasdaq Dubai in the DIFC, or on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), (where Kazim is chairman). “The companies that come to the markets will be those that understand the nature of the changes that they will face as they go forward and have to cope with the conflict between the original entrepreneurs and the next generation,” he said.

How to stop the tragedy of wasting food

on 04 July 2014.

A morsel of rice thrown here, a bag of stale chips discarded there — food waste is ubiquitous. But just how bad is the problem?

Denisa Fainis, a 26-year-old business executive, shone a light on the issue.

The Romanian national won a grant of Dh50,000 in the Philadelphia Creativity for a Cause competition earlier this year and is on track to start a network for the redistribution of wasted food from the hospitality sector to labour camps, mosques and shelters in the UAE.

Greenhouses key to water and food security in UAE

on 01 July 2014.

Dubai: A United Nations agency is working with water-scarce UAE, which is heavily dependent on imported food, to develop greenhouses to save water and boost food security, an expert said.

Greenhouses use only 10 per cent of the water needed to produce the same yields from open farming, said Pasquale Steduto, deputy regional representative for the Near East and North Africa at the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).

They work by recycling water - normally lost in plant transpiration and evaporation in the open - in contained spaces where farming and climate conditions are controlled.

Steduto said the FAO and the Ministry of Environment and Water (MoEW) are “collaborating to use greenhouses as much as possible to save water while producing food”.

His comments came on Thursday on the sidelines of a Dubai-based UN conference on combating desertification in the Arab region.