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RIYADH: The National Portal for Hobbies, Hawi, a part of the Quality of Life Program, is hosting the Hawi Baloot Tournament in Riyadh on Nov. 14-15.

The tournament aims to promote the popular card game, and encourage individuals to pursue their interests, contributing to the achievement of Saudi Vision 2030 goals in the hobby sector.

The event will be held at King Saud University. Interested participants can register via the Hawi app.

Open to all Baloot enthusiasts in Riyadh, the tournament will follow the Swiss system format, with five rounds of play. The top four teams will qualify for the knockout stage to compete for the top spots.

The total prize pool is SR20,000 ($5,300). Participants must also adhere to public morals, including the dress code.

Hawi has previously organized several tournaments across the Kingdom, including one in Makkah last month, with more planned for the coming months.

The initiative encourages people of all ages to engage in hobbies, particularly Baloot, fostering friendly competition within society.

The hobby sector in the Kingdom has rapidly grown since being placed under the Quality of Life Program, which, in collaboration with 12 government entities, established Hawi to oversee the sector.

Hawi supports both male and female hobbyists, raising awareness about the importance of hobbies in achieving Saudi Vision 2030 goals.

RIYADH: The Saudi environment minister called on scientists and researchers to work together to find practical solutions to global water challenges as he attended this year’s Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water at the UN offices in Vienna on Wednesday.
Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Al-Fadhli congratulated the winners of the 11th cycle of the awards, which are held under the patronage of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi Press Agency reported
Their work, he said, had contributed to the development and sustainability of water resources. He also praised the Kingdom’s leadership for supporting research and innovation in the sector.
“This confirms the importance of government institutions worldwide coordinating and organizing to transfer these innovations into practice,” he said.
Experts should work together to find practical solutions to the world’s water challenges, Al-Fadhli said.
“It has become important for water sectors in the world to embrace and enhance these researches and innovations and adopt the principle of integrated water resources management in a manner that suits the nature and geography of each country, taking into account economic, financial and environmental sustainability.”
He thanked the award’s board members and secretary-general for their efforts and said the Kingdom would continue to play its part in addressing water-related challenges at the local, regional and international levels.
The Kingdom’s Permanent Representative to the UN Dr. Abdullah bin Khalid Toula said: “In 2023, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the establishment of a global water organization, which aims to enhance integration between countries and organizations to address the challenges of water availability in a comprehensive manner and make it a platform for exchanging best technical practices, supporting research, development and innovation and enabling priority quality projects and facilitating their financing, in an effort to ensure the sustainability of water resources and enhance safe access opportunities for all.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “Water is life, yet billions of people live without safe drinking water, sanitation services or basic hygiene facilities and water scarcity is increasing and people and communities pay the price.”
Dr. Badran bin Abdulrahman Al-Omar, chairman of the award’s board, said: “The late Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud anticipated the water crisis we face today, as a growing population suffers from increasing demand for food, water and hygiene under conditions exacerbated by uncertainty about climate change. He realized that scientific solutions were needed to alleviate this crisis.”
The Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water was a unique scientific award dedicated to advanced innovations, focused on tangible achievements in finding creative solutions to humanity’s water needs, he said.
The award’s secretary-general, Dr. Abdulmalik bin Abdulrahman Al-Sheikh, said the award had been created in response to the global water situation and that previous winners were working together to overcome the challenges of providing sufficient potable water for people all around the world.
The Kingdom’s ambassadors to Austria, Slovenia and Slovakia also attended the awards ceremony.
This year’s winners were from 14 institutions in six countries: China, the Czech Republic, Italy, Singapore, the UK and the US.
Dr. Qiuhua Liang from Loughborough University, UK, and his team won the Surface Water Award.
Dr. Chunmiao Zeng from the Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo, China, and his team won the Groundwater Award.
Dr. Virender K. Sharma from Texas A&M University, US, and his team members attained the Alternative Water Resources Award.
Dr. Joseph Hon Wei Lee from the Macau University of Science and Technology, China, and his teammates won the Water Resources Management and Protection Award.
Anyone who wishes to nominate their project for consideration for the 12th cycle of the awards should do so at psipw.org before the end of December 2025.