UAE water tech start-up wins praise at Expo 2025 in Osaka

Manhat is among 25 start-ups to be selected for 'Best Practices Award'

Manhat founder Saeed Alhassan wants to harness his inventions to build floating farms, using the fresh water collected from the devices to irrigate and grow crops right at the source.

Manhat, a UAE start-up dedicated to sustainable water and floating farm solutions, has been honoured at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, receiving the Best Practices Award.

It is one of 25 start-ups from around the world to win the award celebrating endeavours tackling global challenges.

The water-technology start-up's story is being showed in the best practices area of the global exhibition, and the company will also have the opportunity to participate in a larger event focused on sustainability solutions taking place in July.

“We are deeply honoured to represent the UAE on this global stage,” said Emirati founder Saeed Alhassan, an engineering professor at Khalifa University.

“This recognition reflects years of deep tech research and a strong belief in nature-based solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems.”

Vishnu Vijayan Pillai, co-founder of Manhat, called the award a milestone for the company and a significant moment for the UAE on the sustainable innovation stage.

UAE water technology startup, Manhat, is one of 25 companies from around the world to earn a place at Expo 2025 Osaka's Best Practices section dedicated to solutions for global problems. Photo: Expo 2025

“Being selected as one of the world’s Best Practices at Expo 2025 gives us a powerful global platform to share our mission of providing clean water solutions in harmony with nature,” he said.

In 2022, Manhat announced that it had created a device using proprietary technology to generate fresh water from the ocean without using electricity, addressing a major hurdle as the Arabian Gulf seeks ways to ensure water and food security.

“Water basically evaporates from the bottom side,” Mr Alhassan told The National in a previous interview, explaining the device.

In July and August, Manhat co-founders Vishnu Vijayan Pillai, left, and Saeed Alhassan will be visiting Expo 2025 Osaka to talk more about their company's vision for sustainable water technology. Photo: Manhat

“And then it goes up and it fills this sphere, and when the night comes and the temperature drops, then the water condenses inside and gets collected in this reservoir here.”

Mr Alhassan emphasised that the desalination methods used by regions with water scarcity are often energy intensive, and in some cases, have the potential to create more pollution.

He is working to manufacture Manhat's devices in a way that gets them to a better price point and eventually makes them accessible to the masses.

While it fine-tunes its prototypes and works on other potential water solutions, Manhat has also filed patents for floating farm solutions that integrate the company's devices that will allow for the production of food even if sea levels continue to rise as a result of climate change.

Amid concerns about climate change, particularly in regions where rain is scarce and importing water costly, water innovations have offered a glimmer of hope for long-term solutions that might prevent major problems and even bolster crop security.

According to the UN, of the 17 most water-stressed countries in the world, 11 are in the Middle East and North Africa, making it one of the most affected regions in the world.