Professor John Briscoe, a native of South Africa originally from Brakpan, Ekurhuleni, is named the winner of the 2014 Stockholm Water Prize for his unparalleled contribution to Global and Local Water Management, inspired by an unwavering commitment to improving the lives of people on the ground. After he received the award, Professor Briscoe said he was “very surprised and honoured. I am delighted for the recognition this gives to thinking practitioners, of which I consider myself one.”
The Stockholm Water Prize is known informally as the “Nobel Prize of Water”. Briscoe was honoured for his “unparalleled contributions to global and local management of water-contributions covering vast thematic, geographic, and institutional environments-that have improved the lives and livelihoods of millions of people worldwide.” Minister Nomvula Mokonyane was in attendance and congratulated him on behalf of the people of South Africa.
Professor John Briscoe is a professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Public Health and Government at Harvard University. The prize, awarded annually since 1991 by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), is given to individuals, organisations, or institutions to “recognise outstanding research, action, or education that increase knowledge of water as a resource and protect its usability for all life.”
Briscoe received his Ph.D. in environmental engineering from Harvard in 1976, as part of the renowned Harvard Water Program. He returned to the University in 2009 as a professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, with joint appointments in the School of Public Health and Kennedy School of Government.
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden presented the award to Briscoe at a ceremony in Stockholm on September 4, during the recent World Water Week.
The 2014 World Water week proved to also be good for South Africa as the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality also received an award. The eThekwini Water and Sanitation, serving the Durban metropolitan area, scooped the Stockholm 2014 Industry Water Award, recognising it as "Most progressive water utility in Africa" for 2014.
The award, conferred on the eThekwini officials on Tuesday, 2 September 2014 at a ceremony during World Water Week, was for this water utility’s transformative and inclusive approach to providing water and sanitation.
In his acceptance speech on behalf of the Metro, Mr. Neil Macleod of eThekwini Water and Sanitation, underlined the role policy has had in the success of eThekwini Water and Sanitation. “If the politicians had not dared to take bold decisions, we would not have been able to do what we did. You need an enabling environment. I stand here today as part of a team of dedicated professionals who have worked with me over the past 22 years. It is a tremendous honour for all of us in Durban”, Macleod said on receiving the prize from SIWI chairman Mr Peter Forssman.
As a country, we can be sure and proud of the fact that as South Africa’s constitution, praised as a model for inclusion of social rights, has water enshrined as a human right within it, all practitioners and the sector as a whole, should take strength from the fact that the work that is being done does bear fruit. Whilst as the eThekwini team aptly put it, the political will and drive are essential to create an enabling environment within which the technocrats can operate and thrive, ensuring that the ideals of delivery of safe and appropriate services and infrastructure happens.
For more information contact:
Sputnik Ratau
Cell: 076 219 5380
E-mail: rataus@dwa.gov.za
