Drinkwell CEO Minhaj recognised at Davos for safe water mission

Minhaj Chowdhury, chief executive of Drinkwell, has received the 2026 Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos for the company’s work in delivering safe drinking water across South Asia.

Accepting the award, Minhaj Chowdhury highlighted arsenic and fluoride contamination affecting more than 200 million people in South Asia, including tens of millions in Bangladesh. He said these contaminants cause cancer, bone deformities and developmental harm in children, and stressed the need to address contamination at the source rather than treating its effects later.

Drinkwell’s patented HIX-Nano™ technology removes arsenic and fluoride at around 30 percent of the cost of conventional systems. The company has deployed more than 700 water treatment plants with a reported 99 percent water recovery rate, serving over three million people daily.

In Bangladesh, Drinkwell has partnered with Dhaka WASA, Chattogram WASA, Khulna WASA, Rajshahi City Corporation and Narayanganj City Corporation. The company said it is also working to address long-standing maintenance challenges in water projects by aligning incentives among governments, development banks and private partners to ensure sustained operation and management.